Safety and Efficacy Study of Stem Cell Transplantation to Treat Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Peripheral blood stem cells will be mobilized by daily subcutaneous injections of filgrastim; CD34+ cells will be collected via apheresis and labeled with technetium. Patients will undergo myocardial perfusion scintigraphy for myocardial viability assessment and the collected CD34+ cells will be injected intracoronary in the artery supplying the segments of reduced tracer accumulation

Patients will undergo filgrastim stimulation and viability assessment using the same protocol as in Arm 1. However, in this group, no intracoronary stem cell delivery will be performed; the patients will receive placebo (saline).

In the SC group, CD34+ cells were mobilized by granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and collected via apheresis. Patients underwent myocardial scintigraphy and cells were injected in the artery supplying segments with the greatest perfusion defect