A disease of the heart muscle that may cause the heart to enlarge, thicken, or stiffen.
Exercise stress test results are central evidence for this condition, because they show the MET level at which your symptoms appear. If exercise testing cannot be done for medical reasons, a medical examiner may estimate your MET level based on specific physical activities — such as slow stair climbing or shoveling snow — that bring on your symptoms.
For a 30% rating based on structural changes rather than MET level, you would need an echocardiogram, a multigated acquisition scan, or an MRI confirming cardiac hypertrophy or dilatation. For a 10% rating based on medication, records showing that continuous medication is required to control the condition support that level.
Medical records documenting your diagnosed cardiomyopathy, cardiology notes, and imaging reports all speak to the criteria above. Statements from you or people who know you describing how symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, or dizziness limit your physical activity can help connect your reported exertion level to the MET thresholds in the rating formula.
Conditions that are often caused or made worse by this one. If you have any of these, they may be claimable as secondary service connection.
