European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging survey on cardiovascular multimodality imaging in acute myocarditis

AIMS: To assess the current role of cardiac imaging in the diagnosis, management, and follow-up of patients with acute myocarditis (AM) through a European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging survey.

METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 412 volunteers from 74 countries responded to the survey. Most participants worked in tertiary centres (56%). All participants had access to echocardiography, while 79 and 75% had access to cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), respectively. Less than half (47%) had access to myocardial biopsy, and only 5% used this test routinely. CMR was performed within 7 days of presentation in 73% of cases. Non-ischaemic late gadolinium enhancement (LGE, 88%) and high-signal intensity in T2-weighted images (74%) were the most used diagnostic criteria for AM. CCTA was preferred to coronary angiography by 47% of participants to exclude coronary artery disease. Systematic prescription of beta-blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors was reported by 38 and 32% of participants. Around a quarter of participants declared considering LGE burden as a reason to treat. Most participants (90%) reported performing a follow-up echocardiogram, while 63% scheduled a follow-up CMR. The main reason for treatment discontinuation was improvement of left ventricular ejection fraction (89%), followed by LGE regression (60%). In two-thirds of participants, the decision to resume high-intensity sport was influenced by residual LGE.

CONCLUSION: This survey confirms the high utilization of cardiac imaging in AM but reveals major differences in how cardiac imaging is used and how the condition is managed between centres, underlining the need for recommendation statements in this topic.