Background: About 1/4 of the patients with recent onset dilated cardiomyopathy(DCMP) improve spontaneously. However the predictors for the future improvement in left ventricular function are not yet known. Recently, magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) has been used to detect necrosis of myocardium after acute myocardial infarction. Also, delayed hyperenhancement MR imaging has been suggested to reflect myocardial fibrosis in DCMP. We hypothesized that the presence of myocardial fibrosis, assessed by cardiac MRI(CMR), may predict the reversibility of dilated cardiomyopathy. Methods: CMR was performed on 14 DCMP patients who were being followed up at OPD. 7 patients had shown functional recovery at followup(LVEF > 45% at follow-up, group 1) while 7 patients did not show functional recovery.(group2) Delayed image CMR was obtained by acquiring an inversion-recovery segmented gradient echo sequence 10 minutes after gadolinium injection. The two study groups were compared in terms of the presence of delayed hyperenhancement. Results: All 7 patients in group 1 were absent of delayed hyperenhancement(Age: 50.4짹14.9, M:F=4:3) while all 7 patients in group 2 demonstrated delayed hyperenhancement.(Age: 52.9짹14.6, M:F=6:1). There was no significant difference in the duration until follow-up echocardiography.(group 1: 9.9짹3.8 months group 2: 6.0짹21 months) Number of segments analyzed for each patient was 73.1짹6.4 for group 1 and 78.3짹8.3 for group 2. For group 2, 56.6짹26.7%(44.4짹20.5 segments) of the segments showed delayed hyperenhancement. There were no significant difference between group 1 and group 2 for the initial LV end diastolic dimension(LVEDD)[62.6짹5.6 vs 64.3짹8.5], LV end systolic dimension(LVESD)[54.4짹6.5 vs 56.0짹8.9] and LVEF(28.0짹8.5% vs 27.7짹8.9%), but there were significant differences for the follow-up LVEDD (52.7짹4.2 vs 65.0짹9.8, p=0.011), LVESD(39.4짹3.3 vs 54.8짹9.4, p=0.002) and LVEF(49.9짹4.3% vs 31.0짹5.5%, p<0.001). Conclusion: Delayed hyperenhancement, assessed by CMR, may be associated with functional recovery in DCMP. CMR may be useful in predicting functional recovery of DCMP.