Griffin's echo results are sort of what I was expecting, but not at all what I wanted to hear. Griffin has Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) which is the most common heart disease of cats, whether they are random bred or pedigreed. It is a heart muscle disease in which the papillary muscles (the muscles in the left ventricle that anchor the mitral valve) and the walls of the left ventricle become abnormally thickened. HCM is often a progressive disease, and a proportion of affected cats develop heart failure if the muscle hypertrophy and subsequent scarring of the heart muscle significantly affects heart function. The vet told me that because it is so progressive, I could suddenly lose Griffin at any time. He said that the walls of the heart are very thick and that he could throw a blood clot or have fluid in his lungs or stomach which could present some serious problems or death. There is currently no fluid anywhere.. just the thickening and leaky valve. The vet put him on atenolol which is a beta blocker to help with the heart beating and to help it not work so hard, and on Plavix to help prevent a blood clot. I asked him how long I would have with Griffin and his response was more or less that if I still have him in a year, he should come back in for another echo. =(