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Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)
 
 
 

Dobutamine gated blood pool scintigraphy predicts the improvement of cardiac sympathetic nerve activity, cardiac function, and symptoms after treatment in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.

BACKGROUND: We evaluated whether dobutamine gated blood pool scintigraphy (DOB-GBP) can predict improvement in cardiac sympathetic nerve activity and cardiac function after beta-blocker therapy in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). METHODS AND RESULTS: Twenty-two patients with DCM underwent DOB-GBP to measure left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) at rest, and during 5, 10, and 15 microg/kg/min of dobutamine infusion before therapy. Examinations were performed before and after 1 year of therapy. The heart/mediastinum count (H/M) ratio and total defect score (TDS) were determined for 123I-meta-iodobenzylguanidine images from anterior planar image and single-photon emission CT images. LVEF and left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (LVDd) were determined by echocardiography. After 1 year of treatment, the echocardiographic LVEF improved > 5% in 11 patients (group A), but did not improve in the remaining 11 patients (group B). Before treatment, TDS, H/M, LVEF, and LVDd were similar in both groups. However, there was a greater increase in the LVEF during dobutamine infusion in group A than in group B (21 +/- 8% vs 9 +/- 3%, p < 0.001). If a critical value of 15% for the DeltaLVEF was used to predict the improvement in LVEF after treatment, the sensitivity was 91% and specificity was 82%. The TDS, H/M ratio, LVDd, and New York Heart Association functional class improved in group A to a greater extent than in group B. CONCLUSIONS: DOB-GBP can be used to predict improved cardiac sympathetic nerve activity, cardiac function, and symptoms after treatment in patients with DCM.[1]

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