In this test, the physician removes a piece of heart muscle to look at under a microscope.  The biopsy can be done during a cardiac catheterization and is useful in diagnosing some types of cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle.

Because some types of cardiomyopathy run in families, your physician may recommend looking for the disease in the parents, brothers and sisters, and children of people with cardiomyopathy.  Genetic counseling may be recommended.  Genetic counseling is useful to help define and explain how the disease runs in families and to determine the chances of parents passing it on to their children.