Objective To compare the
heart function and observe the clinical
prognosis of
dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in
children treated with combination of
prednisone and
azathioprine and high
dose intravenous immunoglobulin (
IVIG ).
Methods From Jan.1998 to May 2004,20
children who met the diagnostic criteria of DCM were divided into 2
therapeutic groups(groupⅠ,groupⅡ) according to the
time of
hospitalization .On the basis of traditional
congestive heart failure (CHF)
therapy ,the
children in groupⅠwere treated with
immunosuppressive therapy (
prednisone plus
azathioprine ) and the
children in groupⅡ were treated with high
dose IVIG .The
course of
treatment was 6 months for all
children .
Heart functions in all
children were evaluated and echocardiographic
parameters including left auricular diameter(LA),left ventricular end diastolic diameter(LV),left
ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and cardiac index(CI) were measured before and after
therapy ,respectively.All
children were followed up for 1 year to observe
survival rate (%).The findings were analyzed by t test and ?~2 test.Results The percentage of
heart function increased from Ⅲ-Ⅳ toⅠ-Ⅱin groupⅠ,which was lower than that in groupⅡ(P