American Heart Association volunteer expert on HCM, James E. Udelson, M.D., is Chief, Division of Cardiology; Director, Nuclear Cardiology Laboratory; professor, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts. Offering perspective on AHA Scientific Sessions 2020 Presentation P1732 copyright American Heart Association 2020 "Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a genetic heart disease that in the past was thought to be pretty rare, but it's actually, it's uncommon but not at all rare, probably about one in 500 people actually have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It often comes to attention because of symptoms of shortness of breath or else a physician or healthcare professional might hear a murmur, which many of the patients have. And then an echocardiogram is used to make the diagnosis. It's a disease where there's a genetically driven thickening of a part of the heart muscle."