Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Cardiol. Nov 26, 2026; 18(11): 126026
Published online Nov 26, 2026. doi: 10.4330/wjc.126026
Published online Nov 26, 2026. doi: 10.4330/wjc.126026
Clinical, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic features of childhood cardiomyopathy in the United Arab Emirates
Sulafa Ali, Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 26262, Ash Shāri
Ahmed Al Kamali, Sara F E Mohammed, Raibeena Padayan, Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Al Qassimi Women and Children’s Hospital, Sharjah 4511, Ash Shāriqah, United Arab Emirates
Nahid Abdul Hameed, Reham Jasim, Department of Pediatric, Al Qassimi Women and Child
Author contributions: Ali S contributed to study design, wrote the proposal and the first draft; Al Kamali A contributed to manuscript review and organization of the project; Mohammed SFE, Hameed NA, Jasim R, and Padayan R contributed to data collection and review of manuscript.
AI contribution statement: Authors confirm that artificial intelligence was used only for improving writing after careful revision.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Emirates Health System. Approval Reference No. MOHAP/DXB-Research Ethics Committee/A.M.S/No.71/2025. All data were kept confidential; only the research team had access to the data.
Informed consent statement: As this is a retrospective study, patient consent was not required.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Data will be available upon request.
Corresponding author: Sulafa Ali, Full Professor, Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Sharjah, University City Road, Sharjah 26262, Ash Shāriqah, United Arab Emirates.
Received: July 24, 2026
Revised: September 21, 2026
Accepted: October 23, 2026
Published online: November 26, 2026
Processing time: 116 Days and 16.5 Hours
Revised: September 21, 2026
Accepted: October 23, 2026
Published online: November 26, 2026
Processing time: 116 Days and 16.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This retrospective study included 200 children with cardiomyopathy in a multiethnic, highly consanguineous population. It revealed a high prevalence in females presenting in young infancy, most commonly with the hypertrophic type. Genetic and metabolic disorders were detected in 21.5% and 15%, respectively. Mortality rates were higher for those with genetic disorders. The mean overall survival was 73.8 months. Genetic disorders included Noonan’s, Alstrom’s, and CHARGE syndromes. To our knowledge, the latter has not previously been reported.