Echocardiographic observation of acute myocarditis with systemic lupus erythematosus

Although myocarditis from a series of autopsies of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus was frequently observed, the incidence of clinically apparent myocardial dysfunction was low. A 30-year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus was examined by echocardiography. An acoustic densitometry was followed at the left ventricular posterior wall throughout the clinical course. A decrease in the magnitude of cyclic variation of integrated backscatter (IB) was observed before treatment. Following the combined treatment, steroid and cyclophosphamide, a repeated ultrasonic tissue characterization showed an increase in the magnitude of cyclic variation of IB. It is thought that ultrasonic tissue characterization may be a useful method to evaluate the impairment of contraction, and to follow up the clinical course of myocardial involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus.