Myocarditis successfully diagnosed and controlled with speckle tracking echocardiography

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) is an objective, well-validated and reproducible technique of assessing left ventricular longitudinal deformation; it also offers a more sensitive assessment of myocardial contractility than widely used visual estimation. Evaluating global longitudinal strain may help identify patients with subclinical left ventricular systolic dysfunction. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 28-year-old man with myocarditis, which successfully diagnosed and followed-up with the novel echocardiography method using speckle tracking imaging. The patient was referred to our hospital with an initial diagnosis of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Transthoracic echocardiography did not show any contractility abnormalities. Hence, in the course of further diagnostics, left ventricular function was assessed by STE. Depressed global longitudinal strain was noted within several segments of the left ventricle. Then, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging was performed to confirm the diagnosis of myocarditis. CONCLUSIONS: STE seems to be competitive in relation to cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of some diseases, such as myocarditis.