Diffusion Tensor CMR Assessment of the Microstructural Response to Dobutamine Stress in Health and Comparison With Patients With Recovered Dilated Cardiomyopathy

This is the first report describing how the myocardial microstructure facilitates cardiac reserve. In health, sheetlet mobility moves further toward the wall-perpendicular plane to drive increased contractility, rather than increased magnitude of sheetlet mobility. Despite clinical recovery in patients with rDCM, microstructural function at rest and during dobutamine remains impaired. Further understanding of microstructural remodeling at rest and during stress may help refine risk stratification of patients with rDCM at risk of relapse.