Septal Thickening in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

This echocardiogram shows severe septal thickening in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The dots on either side of the scan are 1 cm apart. Thus, the ventricular septal (VS) thickness is more than 4 cm compared to the posterior left ventricle wall (PW) thickness of 2 cm (asymmetric septal hypertrophy). Because the septal thickness is > 3 cm, this is a reasonable indication for ICD implantation for prevention of sudden cardiac death regardless of other findings.