Coronary Angiography in Dilated Cardiomyopathy: A Cross Sectional Study in A Cameroonian Population

Owona Amalia* Tang Nlend Serge Louis, Mefo Kue Didi Stanine, Ebeni Onana Clarisse, Hamadou Ba, Menanga Alain Patrick

Abstract

Introduction: Coronary angiography remains the gold standard for identifying coronary artery disease in patients with ischemic-like cardiomyopathy. In Cameroon, data on the angiographic features of dilated cardiomyopathies (DCM) are still lacking, hence the importance of our study.

Patients and Methods: We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study over three years, from November 8, 2022, to November 8, 2025, including all patients admitted to the coronary angiography suite for etiological investigation of dilated cardiomyopathy who provided informed consent.

Results: Over 115 patients admitted in our Laboratory, 51 presented with DCM. The mean age of the study population was 60.9 ± 9.25 years, and the male-to-female ratio was 4.67. Hypertension was the predominant condition (88.2%), followed by dyslipidemia (62.7%) and type 2 diabetes (45.1%), with 7.8% having a history of coronary artery disease. One-third of patients had already progressed to heart failure (33.3%), reflecting the advanced stage of the disease at the time of the investigation, and 72.0% presented with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction. Acute coronary syndromes, particularly STEMI (45.1%), were the main indication for coronary angiography. We found no statistically significant association between clinical characteristics and abnormal coronary angiography findings.

Conclusion: This study highlights a high frequency of coronary abnormalities in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy who underwent coronary angiography in Yaoundé, suggesting a major and probably underestimated contribution of coronary artery disease in this population. Most importantly, this pionner work is refleting the unaccessibilty to interventional management of coronary syndroms for our population.