TABLE 1.

Instrumental investigations to diagnose cardiac involvement in Becker muscular dystrophy

Investigation	Finding
Blood chemical investigations
CK, CK-MB	Myocardial cell damage
Brain natriuretic peptide	Heart failure
Electrocardiogram	Rhythm abnormalities, myocardial damage
Ambulatory electrocardiogram	Vegetative impairment
Echocardiography	hCMP, dCMP, ventricular dysfunction
Backscatter analysis	Myocardial fibrosis, arrhythmias
Thallium scintigraphy	Reduced myocardial perfusion
Technetium ventriculography	Systolic and diastolic dysfunction
MIBG-SPECT	Sympathetic hyperactivity
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging	hCMP, dCMP, LVHT, fibrosis
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy	Reduced dystrophin expression
Endomyocardial biopsy	Fibrosis, LVHT, atrophic myocardiocytes

CK Creatine kinase; dCMP Dilative cardiomyopathy; hCMP Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; LVHT Left ventricular hypertrabeculation; MIBG Metaiodobenzylguanidine; SPECT Single photon emission computed tomography