The discrepancies between clinical and histopathological diagnoses of cardiomyopathies in patients with stage D heart failure undergoing heart transplantation.

The prevalence of misdiagnosed cardiomyopathy was 6% of patients with stage-D HF undergoing heart transplantation, the misdiagnosis mostly occurred in nonischemic/dilated cardiomyopathy. An accurate diagnosis of newly detected cardiomyopathy gives an opportunity for potentially reversing cardiomyopathy, including sarcoidosis or myocarditis. This strategy may minimize the need for advanced HF therapy or heart transplantation. With advances in cardiac imaging, improvements in diagnostic accuracy of the etiology of HF can improve targeting of treatment.