How long can a person live with an enlarged heart?

At age 40, experiencing cardiac discomfort and cardiac enlargement warrants careful evaluation for possible heart failure or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Valvular heart disease and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are both potential causes and must be ruled out. Appropriate pharmacological therapy is essential. In most cases, such cardiac enlargement may adversely affect life expectancy; however, the precise prognosis—and thus the expected lifespan—cannot be determined definitively.