[Detection of myocardial damage in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy using ultrafast CT]

The myocardial characteristics of DCM patients were investigated by ultrafast CT (UFCT), left ventriculography (LVG) and T1 myocardial scintigraphy (SCINTI). Late enhancement, focal wall thinning and intramyocardial fatty components were detected as focal abnormal findings by UFCT. The regions of asynergy detected by LVG and perfusion defect detected by SCINTI were well correlated with those of focal abnormal findings detected by UFCT. There were significant differences between patients with and without focal abnormal findings, in ejection fraction and end-diastolic pressure of left ventricle and the incidence of ventricular arrhythmia. It is possible that these focal abnormal findings represented focal ischemic myocardial damage in DCM patients. DCM patients were divided into two different functional groups by UFCT findings.