Diagnostic Value of Global Cardiac Strain in Patients With Myocarditis

Cardiac strain represents an imaging biomarker of contractile dysfunction.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of cardiac strain obtained by feature-tracking cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) in acute myocarditis.

Cardiac MR examinations of 46 patients with myocarditis and preserved ejection fraction at acute phase and follow-up were analyzed along with cardiac MR of 46 healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Global circumferential strain and global radial strain were calculated for each examination, along with myocardial edema and late gadolinium enhancement, and left ventricle functional parameters, through manual contouring of the myocardium. Correlations were assessed using Spearman ρ. Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U test were used to assess differences between data. Receiver operating characteristics curves and reproducibility were obtained to assess the diagnostic role of strain parameters.

Global circumferential strain was significantly lower in controls (median, -20.4%; interquartile range [IQR], -23.4% to -18.7%) than patients in acute phase (-18.4%; IQR, -21.0% to -16.1%; P = 0.001) or at follow-up (-19.2%; IQR, -21.5% to -16.1%; P = 0.020). Global radial strain was significantly higher in controls (82.4%; IQR, 62.8%-104.9%) than in patients during the acute phase (65.8%; IQR, 52.9%-79.5%; P = 0.001). Correlations were found between global circumferential strain and global radial strain in all groups (acute, ρ = -0.580, P < 0.001; follow-up, ρ = -0.399, P = 0.006; controls, ρ = -0.609, P < 0.001), and between global circumferential strain and late gadolinium enhancement only in myocarditis patients (acute, ρ = 0.035, P = 0.024; follow-up, ρ = 0.307, P = 0.038).

Cardiac strain could potentially have a role in detecting acute myocarditis in low-risk acute myocarditis patients where cardiac MR is the main diagnosing technique.