The role of multimodality imaging in diagnosing acute perimyocarditis secondary to Crohn's disease

Acute perimyocarditis is a rare extra-intestinal manifestation in Crohn's disease which required multimodality imaging to confirm the diagnosis. Here we present a case of acute perimyocarditis as the first presentation of Crohn's disease. To date, this is the first case presentation reporting the use of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT Scan for diagnosing such condition.

A 25-year-old male presented to our hospital with severe persistent pleuritic sharp left-sided chest pain. This was his second hospital admission in the past 4 months for chest pain and diarrhea. At the first hospitalization, he was diagnosed with viral perimyocarditis and irritable bowel syndrome. Laboratory findings, electrocardiogram, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging results confirm the diagnostic of perimyocarditis. Virology, bacteriology, parasitology, and autoimmune evaluations were unremarkable. Colonoscopy, colorectal biopsy, and ¹⁸FGD PET findings confirmed manifestation of perimyocarditis, Crohn's disease, and negative for sarcoidosis.

Looking at the overall clinical picture and investigation results of colonoscopy, colorectal biopsy findings, as well as multi-modality imaging with echocardiography, ¹⁸FDG PET-scan and CMRI, the patient was diagnosed to have perimyocarditis attending Chron's disease flare up as a rare extra-intestinal manifestation.