Abstract
The extent of myocardial ischemia was evaluated in 20 patients with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD) by using Bull's eye method of thallium-201 myocardial SPECT. It was examined in relation to skeletal muscle involvement, age, left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and ventricular premature contractions (VPCs).
Myocardial ischemia was detected in all of patients with DMD. Ischemic lesion was mostly detected in the apical side of the LV lateral wall and interventricular septum, while the extent of myocardial ischemia had no correlations with either the stage of functional disability of skeletal muscle or age. The more Ischemic ratio was higher, the more LV ejection fraction decreased. The total number of VPCs was relatively small and it did not have any relation to myocardial ischemic ratio. These results suggest that younger DMD patients having extensive myocardial ischemia and/or ventricular tachycardia will have a high risk of cardiac death.
