“…Heinz-Peter Schultheiss 1,2 *, DeLisa Fairweather 3 *, Alida L. P. Caforio 4 , Felicitas Escher 1,2,5 , Ray E. Hershberger 6 , Steven E. Lipshultz 7,8,9 , Peter P. Liu 10 , Akira Matsumori 11 , Andrea Mazzanti 12,13 , John McMurray 14 and Silvia G. Priori 12,13 Abstract | Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a clinical diagnosis characterized by left ventricular or biventricular dilation and impaired contraction that is not explained by abnormal loading conditions (for example, hypertension and valvular heart disease) or coronary artery disease. Mutations in several genes can cause DCM, including genes encoding structural components of the sarcomere and desmosome.…”