Measurement of left ventricular dimensions and function in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at the intervention named in the title.

Studies on medical therapy in heart failure are focused on changes of left ventricular (LV) dimensions and function.

These changes may be small, requiring a large study group.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 50 patients were involved.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and double-blind study.

Because people in this study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on the intervention named in the title, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

What Was Measured

The researchers measured LV parameters (LV volumes, LV ejection fraction (LV-EF), and left ventricular mass (LVM)) with two-dimensional echocardiography (2D-echo) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 50 patients.

Based on the difference between the measurements, the researchers determined the variance of the results and calculated the sample sizes needed to detect changes of baseline values.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cardiac Volume, Cardiomyopathy, Dilated, Echocardiography, Exercise Test, Growth Hormone, Heart Failure and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study in 50 patients.

The publication is from 2001 (Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.