Can Muscle Relaxers Be A Cause Of Cadiomyopathy?
Cardiomyopathy is disease of the muscle of the heart and is classified as dilated, restrictive or hypertrophic. Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most common.
The heart is divided into right and left sides , each side is then divided into 2 compartments. The upper 2 comparments are called atria and the lower 2 are called ventricles.The ventricle on the right sends blood to the lungs and the ventricle on the left sends the blood out to the body.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is caused by enlargement of the ventricles with abnormal contractions of the heart muscles.
It has many causes including medications however the medications normally associated dilated cardiomyopathy are chemotherapy drugs used for cancer. There was a minor study looking at persons taking muscle relaxants, out of over 2000 persons , only one had cardiomyopathy (0.04% of persons assessed) - it is unsure whether the muscle relaxants was causative or coincidental finding.
In restrictive cardiomyopathy the heart is normal size but cannot relax enough to work properly.It is not usually associated with medication.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy- the heart muscle is thick and cannot contract properly. It is usually inherited.
Muscle relaxants are contraindicated (cannot be used) in some cardiac disease and your doctor will likely choose a different agent if muscular pain in present if you have cardiomyopathy.
I hope this answers your question, feel free to ask any other questions