Brain magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychologic evaluation of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

We compared brain magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychologic performance in 20 neurologically asymptomatic patients suffering from idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (mean age 41 [range 18-49] years) and 20 age-matched controls (mean age 38 [range 28-49] years). Patients exhibited a significantly higher rate of cerebral infarcts (20% versus 0%, p less than 0.05) and cortical (50% versus 5%, p less than 0.01) and ventricular (55% versus 15%, p less than 0.02) atrophy than controls. Accordingly, semiquantitative volumetric measurements yielded a significantly increased ventricular-to-intracranial cavity ratio in the patients (6.2 +/- 2.9% versus 4.1 +/- 1.3%, p less than 0.01). This ratio and the cortical atrophy ratings correlated positively with disease duration (r = 0.63 and 0.54, p less than 0.05). Cognitive test performance was significantly worse in patients than in controls and was most impaired in those patients with morphologic cerebral abnormalities.