We report the case of a 52 years old patient with dilated cardiomyopathy. Ischemic heart disease was excluded by coronary angiography. However, bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy was present on plain chest radiography. Transbronchial biopsy showed non-necrotizing, epitheloid cell granulomas and thus sarcoidosis was diagnosed. A MRI of the heart confirmed the cardiac involvement by the sarcoidosis ...

ecent advancements in the management of patients with cute coronary syndromes and chronic coronary artery isease have contributed to a decreasing number of ischemic atients developing advanced left ventricular dysfunction nd heart failure. Trends in clinical practices using device herapy in patients with heart failure and left ventricular ysfunction indicate that the incidence of nonischemic or...

The association between lack of thyroid hormones and cardiac dysfunction has been well described. We report two new cases of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), revealing a periphery hypothyroidism and for whom cardiac function significantly improved after L thyroxin substitutive treatment. Our cases highlight the necessity to perform thyroid function testing to investigate the etiology...

Currently, nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (NICM) represents the leading cause of advanced heart failure, accounting for >50% of all heart transplantation procedures. We propose that when compared with patients with ischemic heart failure (IHF), patients with NICM demonstrate a more favorable clinical response to cell therapy, which offers a potential novel promising treatment approach for t...

Dilated cardiomyopathy is a frequent cause of heart failure and death. Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is a biomarker of dilated cardiomyopathy, but there is controversy whether ANP modulates the development of heart failure. Therefore, we examined whether ANP affects heart failure, cardiac remodeling, function, and survival in a well-characterized, transgenic model of dilated cardiomyopathy. ...

OBJECTIVES To compare HLA distribution in familial and non-familial dilated cardiomyopathy, because a serum marker that could identify families at risk of developing dilated cardiomyopathy should be of use in screening for the disease. PATIENTS 100 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. METHODS 200 first degree relatives from 56 of the proband families were screened for dilated cardiomyopath...

Ischemic stroke temporally related to cocaine abuse has become increasingly common in young adults. Despite this relation, however, the pathogenesis of infarction in many of these patients remains obscure. I report the case of a 39-year-old man who developed occlusion of the frontopolar branches of the left middle cerebral artery 1 hour after intravenous cocaine use. Eleven days later he develo...

BACKGROUND Risk stratification of patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy remains a matter of debate in the era of device implantation. OBJECTIVE We investigated associations between histopathological findings, contrast-enhanced cardiac MRI and the inducibility of ventricular tachycardia (VT) or fibrillation (VF) in programmed ventricular stimulation. METHODS 56 patients with impa...