Help us find candidates for this study and save lives!

There are no costs to participants or their insurance associated with this study.

TO QUALIFY FOR THIS STUDY EACH OF THE FOLLOWING MUST BE TRUE

For questions and to enroll write to heartstudy@unr.edu

At least two of your grandparents are of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

You have been diagnosed with dilated cardiomopathy (DCM), NOT hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) .

You are over 18 and are not pregnant.

We are interested in your grandparent’s genes, not their religious practice. Ashkenazi Jews descended from Jews who lived in central Europe including Poland, Lithuania and Russia. Their genetics is distinct from Sephardic Jews who descended from Jews who settled in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain or Portugal) or from Mizrahi Jews who descended from Jews who remained in the Middle East.

Your dilated cardiomyopathy should not have been caused by alcoholism, thyroid disease, diabetes, viral infections of the heart, heart valve abnormalities or drugs. Rather we require subjects with DCM from either unknown causes (idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, IDC) or genetic causes (familial dilated cardiomyopathy FDC). This study is restricted to persons diagnosed with dilated (not hypertrophic) cardiomyopathy.

Study subjects cannot be minors or pregnant.