Humans ; Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne/diagnosis* ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated/diagnosis* ; Echocardiography ; Patients

Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Europe ; Humans ; United States

Cardiomyopathies ; classification ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Child ; Humans ; Pediatrics ; Suggestion

BACKGROUND: Although idiopathic cardiomyopathies(i-CMP) are very important in all age groups, the epidemiology of i-CMP in children has not been well defined. A retrospective study in Korean children was performed in 1998 to obtain basic data on i-CMP. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The medical records of all patients aged birth to 15 years from the hospitals where pediatric cardiologists worked were reviewed to obtain information on i-CMP. Pediatric cardiologists from a total of 22 hospitals were participated in reviewing the medical records of their patients and filling up the protocol. The data were pooled to the study committee and reviewed. RESULTS: Of the 278 cases with i-CMP, there were dilated cardiomyopathy (d-CMP) in 182 (65.4%): hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (h-CMP) in 74 (26.6%): restrictive cardiomyopathy (r-CMP) and unclassified in 17 (6.1%) and 5 (1.9%) each. The average annual occurrence of new cases as a whole was 2.65 per 100,000 (95% CI: 1.5-3.7): d-CMP, 1.73/100,000/year (95% CI: 0.73-2.73): h-CMP, 0.71/100,000/year (95% CI: 0.35-1.07): r-CMP, 0.16/100,000/year (95% CI: 0.02-0.3). The median age at the time of diagnosis was 11 months in d-CMP: 3.0 years in h-CMP: 6.9 years in r-CMP. The survival rate in d-CMP was 76% at 1 year, 72.5% at 2 year, 70% at 5 year. There was no difference in survival rate according to age (in d-CMP, between children less than 2 years of age and over 2 years of age (74% vs. 79% at 1 year: 67% vs. 76% at 5 year, p=NS): in h-CMP, between children less than 1 year of age and over 1 year of age (84% vs. 96% at 1 year: 63% vs. 81% at 5 year, p=NS)). R-CMP showed the worst survival rate (72% at 1 year, 30.2% at 5 year). CONCLUSION: In spite of the inherent defects of retrospective analysis, this study provides the useful epidemiological data in children with i-CMP. However, more systemic approach is needed to define the nature of the i-CMP in children.
Cardiomyopathies* ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic ; Cardiomyopathy, Restrictive ; Child* ; Diagnosis ; Epidemiology ; Humans ; Medical Records ; Parturition ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate

Adolescent ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; diagnosis ; etiology ; physiopathology ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Graves Disease ; complications ; diagnosis ; physiopathology ; Humans

Cardiomyopathies ; classification ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; diagnosis ; etiology ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; Humans

Paraganglioma is an extraadrenal pheochromocytoma originating from chromaffin ceIls distributed in sympathetic nervous systems. This tumor often can produce catecholamines and induce sustained or paroxysmal hypertension, with or without the typical symptams of headache, palpitation and sweating. Paraganglioma without the usual clinical manifestations is not easy to suspect and diagnose. Herein, we report a case of atypical retroperitoneal paraganglioma which was thought to be the pancreas tail mass and result in a paroxysmal adrenergic crisis and fatal dilated cardiomyopathy after the sonographically guided percutaneous biopsy. This rare case warns against the usual practice of percutaneous biopsy for the preoperative diagnosis of intraabdominal or retmperitoneal tumors.
Biopsy* ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated ; Catecholamines ; Diagnosis ; Headache ; Hypertension ; Pancreas ; Paraganglioma* ; Pheochromocytoma ; Sweat ; Sweating ; Sympathetic Nervous System

Gated blood pool scan(GBPS) may be used for evaluating patients with dilated cardiomyopathy(DCM) where it can assist in the diagnosis, and evaluation of severity, disease progression or therapeutic efficacy. In addition to the routine parameters that have been available by GBPS, relatively simple mathematical manipulations of the equilibrium time activity curve can derive parameters relating to the degree and sequence of ventricular emptying. This first harmonic phase analysis may enable quantitative and more specific measurements of wall motion abnormalities in DCM and may thus be useful for more accurate assessments in these patients. Thus, in an attempt to evaluate the findings of phase analysis in DCM and to determine their possible usefulness in this entity, we measured parameters of phase analysis from the resting GBPS of 25 DCM patients and 11 normal controls, and compared these with other parameters of ventricular function from GBPS or echocardiography. Parameters of the systolic as well as diastolic function were markedly depressed for both left and right ventricles (all p<0.001), and echocardiographic LV systolic diameter was increased in all patients. Phase analsis showed the mean and standard deviation of phase angle(Mph & SDph) of both ventricles to be singificantly greater, and the mean amplitude smaller in DCM patients compared to controls(p<0.01). SDph appeared to be a sensitive parameter(LV 100%, RV 92%), and LV SDph showed significant correlations with other GBPS parmeters such as LV ejection fraction(LVEF) and LV peak ejection rate(LVPER) (r=-0.85 and 0.75, respectively) (all p<0.001), and with LV systolic diameter (r=0.78, p<0.001). Also, LV mean amplitude correlated well with LVEF (r=0.79, p<0.001). Thus, phase analysis of GBPS was able to show and quantify significant asynchronity in contraction of both ventricles in DCM, and these parameters may by useful in evaluating ventricular performance in these patients.
Cardiomyopathy, Dilated* ; Diagnosis ; Disease Progression ; Echocardiography ; Heart Ventricles ; Humans ; Ventricular Function*

BACKGROUND: Ischemic cardiomyopathy and dilated cardiomyopathy may be clinically indistinguishable and cardiac catheterization is often required to differentiate between them. And many nonivasive methods including myocardial Thallium scan have showed nonspecific results in differentiating between them. METHODS: We studied the change of echocardiographic ejection fraction after exercise in 8 patients with ischemic heart failure and 9 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and have assessed the usefulness of this noninvasive technique in distinguishing between the two groups. RESULTS: All patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy displayed the significant decrease of ejection fraction at 5 minutes after exercise(p<0.01) and recovery of ejection fraction at 15 minutes after exercise(35.25+/-6.56%-->28.75+/-7.89%-->34.38+/-8.50%). Respectively, all patients with dilated cardiomyopathy showed the significant increment of ejection fraction at 5 minutes(p<0.005) and 15 minutes(p<0.05) after exercise compared with the pre-exercise value(29.44+/-6.17%-->46.33+/-11.93%-->35.00+/-5.68%). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that echocardiographic ejection fraction at post-exercise 5 minutes, will be the adjunctive method to differentiate between ischemic cardiomyopathy and dilated cardiomyopathy.
Cardiac Catheterization ; Cardiac Catheters ; Cardiomyopathies ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated* ; Diagnosis, Differential* ; Echocardiography* ; Heart Failure* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Thallium

Polyarteritis nodosa is systemic necrotizing vasculitis of medium and small-sized arteries and results in variable manifestations due to ischemia of the involving organs. Diagnosis can either be made pathologically by demonstrating necrotizing vasculitis of arteries or angiographycally by demonstrating small arterial aneurysm. We experienced a case of PAN with dilated cardiomyopathy, confirmed by clinical feature, renal biopsy, angiography and echocardiography.
Aneurysm ; Angiography ; Arteries ; Biopsy ; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated* ; Diagnosis ; Echocardiography ; Ischemia ; Polyarteritis Nodosa* ; Vasculitis