Cardiomyopathy describes several diseases where the heart muscle weakens, stiffens, or thickens, making it harder to pump blood. The most common types are dilated (enlarged heart), hypertrophic (thickened walls), and restrictive (stiff heart). Treatment ranges from medications and devices to heart transplant in severe cases.
What's actually going on in research
Trials are testing gene therapies for inherited forms, drugs that target the thick heart muscle in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and medications that address the underlying protein misfolding in certain genetic types. Researchers are also studying stem cells, cardiac MRI to predict who needs treatment, and ways to prevent progression in people with early disease.
Gene therapy
Several trials are testing one-time gene treatments for inherited cardiomyopathies caused by single gene mutations. Early results show some people's heart function improved after receiving the therapy.
Mavacamten and cardiac myosin inhibitors
Mavacamten, approved by FDA in 2022, reduces the thick heart muscle in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by blocking overactive myosin proteins. Newer drugs in this class are being tested to see if they work faster or reach more patients.
Protein stabilizers
Drugs like tafamidis stabilize misfolded proteins in certain inherited cardiomyopathies, slowing heart damage. Trials are testing similar approaches for other genetic forms where proteins clump in the heart.
What to know before you search
Eligibility typically depends on cardiomyopathy type, heart function measures, genetic test results if inherited, symptoms, and prior treatments including medications and devices.
What types of trials are currently open
- Treatment trials — Testing new medications to improve heart function, reduce symptoms like shortness of breath, or slow disease progression.
- Gene therapy trials — Testing one-time treatments that deliver corrected genes to heart muscle cells in people with inherited cardiomyopathy.
- Device trials — Testing implantable devices like pacemakers or defibrillators that help the heart beat more effectively or prevent sudden cardiac arrest.
- Imaging studies — Using advanced MRI or ultrasound to identify early disease and predict who will benefit from treatment.
- Registry studies — Following large groups of people with cardiomyopathy over time to learn what factors predict outcomes and treatment response.
Recently added Cardiomyopathy trials
Receive a specialized pacemaker implant to improve heart function
Heart failure is a common chronic cardiovascular disease that seriously impairs patients' quality of life and long-term prognosis. When heart failure is complicated by complete left bundle branch block, the electrical signals that regulate orderly heart contraction cannot be transmitted normally along the left conduction pathway, causing the left and right ventricles to contract out of sync. This will gradually weaken the heart's pumping capacity, leading to symptoms such as exertional shortness of breath, persistent fatigue and body edema, and significantly increasing the risk of repeated hospital admissions and premature death. Traditional biventricular pacing is the standard treatment recommended by international clinical guidelines for this condition. By implanting pacing leads in both ventricles to deliver synchronized electrical stimulation, it restores cardiac synchrony, improves cardiac function and reduces mortality in most eligible patients. However, the placement of left ventricular leads is entirely dependent on the anatomy of the coronary venous system. Due to wide individual differences in venous structure, many patients encounter intraoperative difficulties such as failed coronary sinus intubation, absence of suitable target veins, phrenic nerve stimulation, high pacing thresholds and postoperative lead displacement. More importantly, approximately 30% to 40% of patients still show no significant improvement in cardiac function or symptoms even after optimized device programming, a condition known as non-response to cardiac resynchronization therapy. Left bundle branch area pacing is an innovative physiological pacing technique originally developed in China. It advances a pacing lead through the ventricular septum to directly activate the heart's intrinsic conduction bundle, allowing electrical impulses to spread along the natural conduction pathway and restore ventricular synchrony. Previous single-center observational studies have shown that this technique features stable long-term pacing parameters, relatively low operative difficulty and a favorable safety profile, and can achieve satisfactory cardiac resynchronization effects. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of high-quality multicenter randomized controlled evidence to confirm its long-term clinical hard endpoint benefits. In addition, current implantation operations largely rely on the personal experience of operators, without a unified quantitative positioning standard. This multicenter prospective randomized controlled study is led by the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, with three other tertiary general hospitals participating. A total of 100 eligible heart failure patients with left bundle branch block and left ventricular ejection fraction ≤ 40% will be enrolled. All participants have received at least 3 months of standardized guideline-directed anti-heart failure drug therapy before enrollment, and will be randomly assigned to two groups at a 1:1 ratio. One group will receive left bundle branch area pacing guided by multimodal quantitative data, and the other will receive traditional biventricular pacing. If the initially assigned pacing strategy cannot be successfully implemented during surgery, the patient will cross over to the alternative approach to ensure clinical safety and therapeutic effect. After the implantation procedure, all patients will receive regular follow-up every 3 months for at least 1 year. During follow-up, the research team will perform examinations including 12-lead electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, 6-minute walk test and pacemaker device interrogation, and systematically record clinical events such as all-cause death, heart failure rehospitalization, malignant arrhythmia and procedure-related complications. The core goal of this study is to compare the incidence of the composite endpoint of all-cause death and heart failure rehospitalization between the two groups, and verify whether multimodal quantitative-guided left bundle branch area pacing can bring superior long-term clinical benefits to heart failure patients. The findings are expected to provide reliable evidence for the clinical application of this technique, help establish standardized quantitative implantation standards, and offer a more optimized treatment option for more heart failure patients.
Complete heart mapping tests to identify irregular heartbeat sources
The goal of this study is to map conducting channels within scar that cause ventricular tachycardia (VT) in patients with scar in their hearts in order to block these channels from causing VT with targeted radiofrequency ablation (cautery). Participants undergoing VT ablation mapping of these channels by pacing many sites within the scar area and determining where these channels exit the scar into normal tissue. These exits will be ablated. Immediate success and success at 1 year will be evaluated.
Find Cardiomyopathy trials matched specifically to you
Answer 3 quick questions and we'll show you trials that fit your situation.