This study was carried out in Manchester Children's Hospital in the U.K.
and aimed to compare between two groups of children with dilated
cardiomyopathy (DCM).
The first group was 55 children from Damascus University Children's
Hospital in Syria
between 2000 and 2001 . The second group was 22
Children's Hospital in the UK between 1998 and 2002 .
The age of onset in both groups was from 1 month to 13 years . More than
two third were less than 2 years old . Females were more affected in both
groups . Fifty eight percent of the children presented with cardiac failure
with a preceding history of upper respiratory tract infection , which
exaggerated the symptoms . The presentation of dilated cardiomyopathy
was more in autumn and winter in the first group but in the second group
there was no predilection to special season .
MRI is a medical imaging method that does not use harmful or ionizing
radiation so it is safe and can be used to measure the proportions of iron that accumulate in the organs of the human body, especially the heart and liver
