Contributions of 31P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy to the understanding of dilated heart muscle disease.

In the present work, we studied clinical and haemodynamic correlates of impaired cardiac high-energy phosphate metabolism in patients with heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Myocardial 31P-magnetic resonance (MR) spectra were obtained at 1.5 T in 14 volunteers and 23 patients with DCM (mean ejection fraction 34%) in order to quantify the creatine phosphate (CP)/ATP ratio. In addition, patients underwent cardiac catheterization and echocardiography. Compared to volunteers (2.02 +/- 0.11), CP/ATP ratios were significantly reduced in DCM patients (1.54 +/- 0.10; P < 0.05), indicating impaired high-energy phosphate metabolism. CP/ATP ratios correlated with the clinical severity of heart failure estimated from the NYHA class (r = 0.47, P < 0.01); also, CP/ATP correlated with left ventricular ejection fraction (r = 0.54, P < 0.01) and left ventricular end-diastolic wall thickness (r = 0.51, P < 0.01). Thus, 31P-MR spectroscopy can detect abnormal cardiac high-energy phosphate metabolism in patients with heart failure due to DCM. These abnormalities correlate with clinical and haemodynamic parameters. Future studies will have to determine whether 31P-MR spectroscopy can contribute to the routine clinical evaluation of patients with heart failure.