TY - JOUR T1 - Gated Myocardial SPECT to Predict Response to β-Blocker Therapy in Patients with Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med SP - 527 LP - 531 VL - 45 IS - 4 AU - Kazuki Fukuchi AU - Yoshio Yasumura AU - Keisuke Kiso AU - Kohei Hayashida AU - Kunio Miyatake AU - Yoshio Ishida Y1 - 2004/04/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/45/4/527.abstract N2 - Because of the difficulty of predicting the response of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) to β-blocker therapy, this study was performed to evaluate whether gated myocardial SPECT (gated SPECT) could be useful for predicting that response. Methods: We performed gated SPECT with 99mTc-sestamibi on 38 patients with IDC before treatment with a β-blocker and standard medication. Perfusion abnormalities, left ventricular (LV) function, and spheric distortion were assessed by a quantitative software program. Results: We classified patients into 2 groups according to improvement in LV function after 4 mo of therapy. The groups consisted of 16 poor responders whose LV ejection fraction (LVEF) increased less than 10% and 22 good responders whose LVEF increased by 10% or more. The patient characteristics before therapy, including LV volume and LVEF, did not significantly differ between the 2 groups, but the size of the myocardial perfusion defect and spheric distortion were significantly greater in poor responders than in good responders. Conclusion: Gated SPECT, by allowing simultaneous assessment of perfusion, function and geometry, might be useful for predicting the response of patients with IDC to β-blocker therapy. ER -