As we continue to celebrate Fabry Disease Awareness Month, we're sharing expert tips on how to live well with Fabry disease.
Today's tip is about managing the cardiac aspects of Fabry disease. Adults with Fabry disease should discuss their individualized monitoring plan with their healthcare team.
If you'd like to learn more about cardiac monitoring in Fabry disease, please consider joining us tonight, Monday, 4/27 at 7:00 pm ET, for a webinar with cardiologist Dr. John Jefferies. Register at
us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi….
Recommendation #19
Manage your heart disease
Individuals with Fabry disease (FD) often experience heart problems in adulthood, including abnormal EKG, arrhythmias, left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which can lead to heart failure.
Every adult with Fabry disease, regardless of symptoms or gender, should continue to be evaluated by a cardiologist periodically, even after having a normal evaluation.
Tell your doctor if you experience symptoms of cardiovascular disease, including: shortness of breath, chest pain, heart palpitations (skipped beats or racing heart), feeling lightheaded/dizzy, fainting, or swelling of the feet/ankles.
Fabry-specific treatment is shown to decrease cardiac events overall. However, the best cardiac outcomes are reported when treatment is started early, before heart damage occurs.
People with FD with evidence of heart disease may require additional therapies to treat their specific problem(s). Some individuals with FD are prescribed medication(s) and/or have a small device implanted to maintain their heart rhythm (a cardiac pacemaker), or an Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD), which is a combined pacemaker-defibrillator.
In advanced stages of FD, cardiac disease can progress to heart failure. Adults with FD-related heart failure have successfully received heart transplants. Read more about Jerry Walter's transplant story at
fabrydiseasenews.com/columns…
References: Ortiz 2018 (
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…) , Linhart 2020 (
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…) , Kalra 2024 (
youtube.com/watch?v=gRuNX_T4…)
Thank you for participating in Fabry Disease Awareness Month, The NFDF Team
Contact the NFDF by email at info@fabrydisease.org or by phone at 800-651-9131.
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