These forms of treatment have been shown to prevent sudden cardiac death, improve symptoms, and reduce hospitalization in patients with systolic heart failure. In addition, an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator should be considered as a therapeutic option for the primary prevention of sudden cardiac death in patients with a confirmed LMNA mutation responsible for dilated cardiomyopathy disease phenotype and clinical risk factors. A novel risk score calculator has been developed that allows calculation of risk of sustained ventricular arrhythmia in the next 5 years in patients with DCM  https://www.ikard.pl/SVA/

Surgical treatment
In patients with advanced disease who are refractory to medical therapy, heart transplantation may be considered. For these people, 1-year survival approaches 90% and over 50% survive greater than 20 years. Epidemiology
Although the disease is more common in African-Americans than in Caucasians, it may occur in any patient population. Research directions
Therapies that support reverse remodeling have been investigated, and this may suggests a new approach to the prognosis of cardiomyopathies (see ventricular remodeling). Animals
In some types of animals, both a hereditary and acquired version of dilated cardiomyopathy has been documented. Dogs
Dilated cardiomyopathy is a heritable disease in some dog breeds, including the Boxer, Dobermann, Great Dane, Irish Wolfhound, and St Bernard.
Treatment is based on medication, including ACE inhibitors, loop diuretics, and phosphodiesterase inhibitors.An acquired variation of dilated cardiomyopathy describing a link between certain diets was discovered in 2019 by researchers at University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine who published a report on the development of dilated cardiomyopathy in dog breeds lacking the genetic predisposition, particularly in Golden Retrievers. The diets associated with DCM were described as "BEG" (boutique, exotic-ingredient, and/or grain-free) dog foods, as well as legume-rich diets. For treating diet-related DCM, food changes,  taurine and carnitine supplementation may be indicated even if the dog does not have a documented taurine or carnitine deficiency although the cost of carnitine supplementation may be viewed as prohibitive by some

Cats
Dilated cardiomyopathy is also a disease affecting some cat breeds, including the Oriental Shorthair, Burmese, Persian, and Abyssinian. In cats, taurine deficiency is the most common cause of dilated cardiomyopathy. As opposed to these hereditary forms, non-hereditary DCM used to be common in the overall cat population before the addition of taurine to commercial cat food. Other animals
There is also a high incidence of heritable dilated cardiomyopathy in captive Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus), due in no small part to their being highly inbred. The incidence is high enough that several strains of Golden Hamster have been developed to serve as animal models in clinical testing for human forms of the disease. References
External links
Dilated cardiomyopathy information for parents.