A man came to medical attention after nearly fainting, and doctors listening to his chest heard a heart murmur. Imaging revealed the explanation: his heart muscle had grown abnormally thick and was partly blocking the path blood takes out of the heart.
The diagnosis was obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an inherited condition that often goes unrecognized. The case appeared in August 2026 in The New England Journal of Medicine, reported by Julian-Kai Nishizono and Marohito Nakata.