Myocarditis is a common cause of sudden cardiac death in young persons and also may be the underlying cause of cardiac diseases like dilated cardiomyopathy. In clinical practice, the diagnosis of myocarditis, that is, the inflammation of myocardium, is a challenge as symptoms, clinical findings, lab results, and ECG are often similar to those in myocardial infarction.
Cardiac magnetic resonance delayed enhancement (CMR DE) imaging has demonstrated its clinical value as a diagnostic tool for myocarditis diagnosis.¹
The International Consensus Group on CMR Diagnosis of Myocarditis, founded in 2006, recently published a white paper on CMR in myocarditis, including indications for CMR in patients with suspected myocarditis, appropriate CMR acquisition protocol, terminology for reporting CMR findings, and diagnostic CMR criteria for myocarditis.²
Siemens has been leading this type of imaging by first implementing the PSIR Sequence (Phase-Sensitive Inversion Recovery), which is easier to apply and more robust than Inversion Recovery sequences (IR-TFL: Inversion Recovery TurboFlash or TrueFISP) – though Siemens here also provides impressive image quality with the ‘Inversion Recovery TurboFLASH’ and ‘TrueFISP’ sequences.