ABSTRACT
Approximately 36/100,000 persons per year in the United States are diagnosed to have idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), which is responsible for more than 10,000 deaths per year (1).
Choosing optimal therapeutic strategy for patients with DCM is directed mainly by present clinical status and prognostic assessment. Although it is well known that resting systolic function in these patients weakly correlates with symptoms, exercise capacity, and prognosis, and despite the fact that resting parameters do not always reflect the true severity of the disease, stress echocardiography is infrequently used in this patient population as compared to patients with coronary artery disease.
