QRS-T angle in patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy - A comparison with Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Objective: We sought to investigate the possible association of a wide QRS-T angle on the surface EKG and myocardial fibrosis on contrast-enhanced cardiovascular magnetic (CMR) imaging in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).Background: Risk stratification in HCM patients is challenging. Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) visualizes myocardial fibrosis with unique spatial resolution and is a strong and independent prognosticator in these patients. The QRS-T angle from the surface EKG is a promising prognostic marker in various cardiac pathologies.Methods: 70 patients with HCM obtained a standardized digital 12-lead EKG for the calculation of the QRS-T angle and underwent comprehensive CMR imaging for visualization of fibrosis by LGE. Patients were divided into groups according to the absence or presence of fibrosis on CMR.Results: 43 of 70 patients with HCM showed LGE on CMR following contrast administration. HCM patients with LGE (fibrosis) had wider QRS-T angles as compared to the patient group without LGE (100±54 vs. 46±31; <0.001). A QRS-T angle of 90 degrees or more was a strong predictor (OR 32.84, CI 4.08-264.47; p <0.001) of HCM with LGE.Conclusion: There is a strong association of a wide QRS-T angle and myocardial fibrosis in patients with HCM.     

Prognostic implication of late gadolinium enhancement on cardiac MRI in light chain (AL) amyloidosis on long term follow up

Background

Light chain amyloidosis (AL) is a rare plasma cell dyscrasia associated with poor survival especially in the setting of heart failure. Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac MRI was recently found to correlate with myocardial amyloid deposition but the prognostic role is not established. The aim is to determine the prognostic significance of LGE in AL by comparing long term survival of AL patients with and without LGE.

Methods

Twenty nine consecutive patients (14 females; 62 ± 11 years) with biopsy-proven AL undergoing cardiac MRI with gadolinium as part of AL workup were included. Survival was prospectively followed 29 months (median) following MRI and compared between those with and without LGE by Kaplan-Meier and log-rank analyses.

Results

LGE was positive in 23 subjects (79%) and negative in 6 (21%). Left ventricular ejection fraction was 66 ± 17% in LGE-positive and 69 ± 12% in LGE-negative patients (p = 0.8). Overall 1-year mortality was 36%. On follow-up, 14/23 LGE-positive and none of LGE-negative patients died (log rank p = 0.0061). Presenting New York Heart Association heart failure class was also associated with poor survival (p = 0.0059). Survival between two LGE groups stratified by heart failure class still showed a significant difference by a stratified log-rank test (p = 0.04).

Conclusion

Late gadolinium enhancement is common and is associated with poor long-term survival in light chain amyloidosis, even after adjustment for heart failure class presentation. The prognostic significance of late gadolinium enhancement in this disease may be useful in patient risk-stratification.     

Multimodality imaging and the emerging role of cardiac magnetic resonance in autoimmune myocarditis

Autoimmune responses and inflammation are involved in the excess cardiovascular risk observed in patients with systemic inflammatory diseases. Autoimmune myocarditis is a presentation of an inflammatory reaction of the heart during the course of autoimmune disorders, with most cases seen in systemic lupus erythematosus. Early diagnosis is of great significance because of the likelihood of progression to severe and potentially fatal complications such as arrhythmias, heart block, and heart failure. The clinical presentation of the disease is silent leading to delayed diagnosis when dilated cardiomyopathy or heart failure has already advanced. Therefore, a major issue is whether the diagnosis of myocarditis will continue to require invasive procedures such as endomyocardial biopsy or can be achieved with non-invasive methods. There is increasing evidence that noninvasive cardiac imaging, including tissue Doppler echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), is able to detect subclinical cases and aid in the initiation of specific treatment when it is more likely to be effective. CMR in particular, has emerged as an important technique in the evaluation of myocarditis using three types of images: T2-weighted (T2-W), early T1-weighted (EGE) images taken after 1 min, and delayed enhanced images (LGE) taken 15 min after the injection of contrast agent. If 2/3 of the imaging sequences are positive, myocardial inflammation can be predicted or ruled out with a diagnostic accuracy of 78%. As our understanding of disease mechanisms improves, multimodality imaging may aid in the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for this potentially devastating complication of systemic inflammation, but further studies are needed to formally evaluate this.     

Early non-invasive diagnosis and treatment of acute eosinophilic myopericarditis by cardiac magnetic resonance

We report a case of early non-invasive diagnosis of acute eosinophilic myopericarditis (AEM) by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) before cardiac biopsy. A 35-yr-old woman presented with a flu-like illness, followed by pleuritic chest pain and shortness of breath. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed mild left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction with borderline LV wall thickness and moderate pericardial effusion. The patient had peripheral eosinophilia and CMR was performed immediately at first day of visit before cardiac biopsy. CMR showed diffuse subepicardial high T2 signals and diffuse late gadolinium enhancement in LV. Steroid therapy was immediately initiated and patient's symptom was rapidly improved. Endomyocardial biopsy at hospital day 3 reported multifocal mild infiltration of eosinophils and lymphocytes. The patient was finally confirmed as acute eosinophilic myopericarditis. This presentation emphasizes on the role of CMR which enables early non-invasive diagnosis of AEM and visualize the extent of the myocarditis.     

Cardiac sequelae after coronavirus disease 2019 recovery: a systematic review

BackgroundCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been implicated in a wide spectrum of cardiac manifestations following the acute phase of the disease.ObjectivesTo assess the range of cardiac sequelae after COVID-19 recovery.Data sourcesPubMed, Embase, Scopus (inception through 17 February 2021) and Google scholar (2019 through 17 February 2021).Study eligibility criteriaProspective and retrospective studies, case reports and case series.ParticipantsAdult patients assessed for cardiac manifestations after COVID-19 recovery.ExposureSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection diagnosed by PCR.MethodsSystematic review.ResultsThirty-five studies (fifteen prospective cohort, seven case reports, five cross-sectional, four case series, three retrospective cohort and one ambidirectional cohort) evaluating cardiac sequelae in 52 609 patients were included. Twenty-nine studies used objective cardiac assessments, mostly cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) in 16 studies, echocardiography in 15, electrocardiography (ECG) in 16 and cardiac biomarkers in 18. Most studies had a fair risk of bias. The median time from diagnosis/recovery to cardiac assessment was 48 days (1–180 days). Common short-term cardiac abnormalities (<3 months) included increased T1 (proportion: 30%), T2 (16%), pericardial effusion (15%) and late gadolinium enhancement (11%) on CMR, with symptoms such as chest pain (25%) and dyspnoea (36%). In the medium term (3–6 months), common changes included reduced left ventricular global longitudinal strain (30%) and late gadolinium enhancement (10%) on CMR, diastolic dysfunction (40%) on echocardiography and elevated N-terminal proB-type natriuretic peptide (18%). In addition, COVID-19 survivors had higher risk (risk ratio 3; 95% CI 2.7–3.2) of developing heart failure, arrythmias and myocardial infarction.ConclusionsCOVID-19 appears to be associated with persistent/de novo cardiac injury after recovery, particularly subclinical myocardial injury in the earlier phase and diastolic dysfunction later. Larger well-designed and controlled studies with baseline assessments are needed to better measure the extent of cardiac injury and its clinical impact.     

Use of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate cardiac structure,function and fibrosis in children with infantile Pompe disease on enzyme replacement therapy

BackgroundPompe disease (acid α-glucosidase deficiency) is one of several lysosomal storage diseases amenable to treatment with enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). While echocardiography (echo) has been the standard method to evaluate the cardiac response to ERT, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has the advantage of a better tissue definition and characterization of myocardial fibrosis. However, CMR for Pompe disease is not frequently performed due to a high risk of sedation. We report the first use of CMR in a feasible protocol to quantify left ventricular (LV) mass, function, and the presence of myocardial fibrosis in the Pompe population.MethodsChildren with Pompe disease on ERT were assessed with transthoracic echo and CMR over a 3 year period at a single institution. Echocardiography was performed using standard techniques without sedation. CMR was performed using retrospectively gated and real-time imaging, with and without sedation. LV mass indexed to body surface area (LVMI) and ejection fraction (EF) were measured by both echo and CMR, and evaluated for change over time. Myocardial fibrosis was assessed by CMR with delayed enhancement imaging 5–10 min after gadolinium contrast using single shot inversion recovery sequences with inversion time set to null the signal from normal myocardium.ResultsSeventeen CMR scans were successfully performed in 10 subjects with Pompe disease (median age at first CMR is 9 months, range 1–38 months, 80% male), with sedation only performed in 4 studies. There was a median interval of 5 months (range 0–34 months) from the start of ERT to first CMR (baseline). At baseline, the median indexed LVMI by CMR (140.0 g/m², range 43.8–334.0) tended to be lower than that assessed by echo (median 204.0 g/m², range 52.0–385.0), but did not reach statistical significance. At baseline, CMR EF was similar to that assessed by echo (55% vs. 55%). Overall, there was no significant decrease in CMR measured LVMI over time (CMR median LVMI at baseline 94 g/m² (range 43.8–334) vs. CMR median at most recent study 44.5 g/m² (range 34–303), p = 0.44). In 5 patients with serial CMR scans over time, LVMI decreased in 2, was similar in 2, and increased in 1 patient with high sustained antibodies to exogenous enzyme. Delayed enhancement was noted in only l separate patient who also had high sustained antibodies to exogenous enzyme.ConclusionCMR is an imaging tool that is feasible to use to serially follow LVMI and EF in children with Pompe disease on ERT. Real-time imaging is adequate for quantification purposes in these patients and minimizes the need for sedation. Quantitative CMR LVMI is generally lower than echo derived LVMI. Delayed enhancement appears to be a rare finding by CMR in Pompe disease. A further follow-up is necessary to better understand the long term effects of ERT in infantile Pompe survivors, especially those with high sustained antibody titers or advanced cardiac disease at treatment outset.     

Prognostic value of late gadolinium enhancement mass index in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension

PurposeDysfunction of the right ventricle (RV) is an important determinant of survival in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The presence of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) at RV insertion points (RVIPs) has been found in majority of PAH patients and was associated with parameters of RV dysfunction. We hypothesize, that more detailed quantification of LGE may provide additional prognostic information.Material and methodsTwenty-eight stable PAH patients (mean age 49.9 ​± ​15.9 years) and 12 healthy subjects (control group, 44.8 ​± ​13.5 years) were enrolled into the study. Septal LGE mass was quantified at the RVIPs and subsequently indexed by subject’s body surface area. Mean follow-up time of this study was 16.6 ​± ​7.5 months and the clinical end-point (CEP) was defined as death or clinical deterioration.ResultsMedian LGE mass index (LGEMI) at the RVIPs was 2.75 ​g/m2 [1.41–4.85]. We observed statistically significant correlations between LGEMI and hemodynamic parameters obtained from right heart catheterization – mPAP (r ​= ​0.61, p ​= ​0.001); PVR (r ​= ​0.52, p ​= ​0.007) and from CMR – RVEF (r ​= ​−0.54, p ​= ​0.005); RV global longitudinal strain (r ​= ​0.42, p ​= ​0.03). Patients who had CEP (n ​= ​16) had a significantly higher LGEMI (4.49 [2.75–6.17] vs 1.67 [0.74–2.7], p ​= ​0.01); univariate Cox analysis confirmed prognostic value of LGEMI. Furthermore, PAH patients with LGEMI higher than median had worse prognosis in Kaplan-Meier analysis (log-rank test, p ​= ​0.0006).ConclusionsThe body surface indexed mass of LGE at RV septal insertion points are suggestive of RV hemodynamic dysfunction and could be a useful non-invasive marker of PAH prognosis.     

Evaluation of combined late gadolinium-enhancement and functional cardiac magnetic resonance imaging using spiral real-time acquisition

The purpose of the current study was to implement and validate joint real-time acquisition of functional and late gadolinium-enhancement (LGE) cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images during free breathing. Inversion recovery cardiac real-time images with a temporal resolution of 50 ms were acquired using a spiral trajectory (IR-CRISPI) with a pre-emphasis based on the gradient system transfer function during free breathing. Functional and LGE cardiac MR images were reconstructed using a low-rank plus sparse model. Late gadolinium-enhancement appearance, image quality, and functional parameters of IR-CRISPI were compared with clinical standard balanced steady-state free precession breath-hold techniques in 10 patients. The acquisition of IR-CRISPI in free breathing of the entire left ventricle took 97 s on average. Bland–Altman analysis and Wilcoxon tests showed a higher artifact level for the breath-hold technique (p = 0.003), especially for arrhythmic patients or patients with dyspnea, but an increased noise level for IR-CRISPI of the LGE images (p = 0.01). The estimated transmural extent of the enhancement differed by not more than 25% and did not show a significant bias between the techniques (p = 0.50). The ascertained functional parameters were similar for the breath-hold technique and IR-CRISPI, that is, with a minor, nonsignificant (p = 0.16) mean difference of the ejection fraction of 2.3% and a 95% confidence interval from −4.8% to 9.4%. IR-CRISPI enables joint functional and LGE imaging in free breathing with good image quality but distinctly shorter scan times in comparison with breath-hold techniques.     

TNF-α-Secreting B Cells Contribute to Myocardial Fibrosis in Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Purpose

Excessive inflammation responses mediated by CD4⁺ T cells contributes to myocardial fibrosis in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) resulting from viral myocarditis. Recently, some scholars discovered that B cells harbored an abnormal pro-inflammatory capacity besides the production of autoantibodies. Thus, we aimed to explore whether and which type of B cells act on myocardial fibrosis in DCM.

Methods

A total of 56 newly hospitalized DCM patients were studied, and among these, 17 patients accepted the gadolinium enhanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for myocardial fibrosis evaluations.

Results

B cell functions including the frequency and proliferation were significantly elevated in DCM patients. After screening the important cytokines including IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, TNF-α and TGF-β produced in these B cells by flow cytometry, we found that only the TNF-α-secreting B cells were obviously increased. Furthermore, the TNF-α protein secretion and mRNA levels were also enhanced in LPS-stimulated B cell isolated from DCM patients. In addition, 10 patients (59 %) with increased TNF-α-secreting B cells showed late enhancement and boosted serum procollagen type III compared with the other 7 patients (41 %) whose enhancement could not be detected. Moreover, the frequencies of TNF-α-secreting B cells were negatively correlated with LVEF and positively correlated with LVEDD, NT-proBNP and procollagen type III in all of the DCM patients.

Conclusions

Our study firstly suggested that TNF-α-secreting B cells were involved in myocardial fibrosis, which revealed the new pathogenic mechanism of B cells in DCM, and therapeutic targets against these cells might be valuable.     

Late gadolinium uptake demonstrated with magnetic resonance in patients where automated PERFIT analysis of myocardial SPECT suggests irreversible perfusion defect

Background

Myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (MPS) is frequently used as the reference method for the determination of myocardial infarct size. PERFIT^® is a software utilizing a three-dimensional gender specific, averaged heart model for the automatic evaluation of myocardial perfusion. The purpose of this study was to compare the perfusion defect size on MPS, assessed with PERFIT, with the hyperenhanced volume assessed by late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (LGE) and to relate their effect on the wall motion score index (WMSI) assessed with cine magnetic resonance imaging (cine-MRI) and echocardiography (echo).

Methods

LGE was performed in 40 patients where clinical MPS showed an irreversible uptake reduction suggesting a myocardial scar. Infarct volume, extent and major coronary supply were compared between MPS and LGE as well as the relationship between infarct size from both methods and WMSI.

Results

MPS showed a slightly larger infarct volume than LGE (MPS 29.6 ± 23.2 ml, LGE 22.1 ± 16.9 ml, p = 0.01), while no significant difference was found in infarct extent (MPS 11.7 ± 9.4%, LGE 13.0 ± 9.6%). The correlation coefficients between methods in respect to infarct size and infarct extent were 0.71 and 0.63 respectively. WMSI determined with cine-MRI correlated moderately with infarct volume and infarct extent (cine-MRI vs MPS volume r = 0.71, extent r = 0.71, cine-MRI vs LGE volume r = 0.62, extent r = 0.60). Similar results were achieved when wall motion was determined with echo. Both MPS and LGE showed the same major coronary supply to the infarct area in a majority of patients, Kappa = 0.84.

Conclusion

MPS and LGE agree moderately in the determination of infarct size in both absolute and relative terms, although infarct volume is slightly larger with MPS. The correlation between WMSI and infarct size is moderate.

     

Determinants of Exercise Capacity in Patients With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

BackgroundReduced exercise capacity reflects symptom severity and clinical outcomes in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The present study aimed to identify factors that may affect exercise capacity in patients with HCM.MethodsIn 294 patients with HCM and preserved left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction, we compared peak oxygen consumption (peak VO₂) evaluated by cardiopulmonary exercise testing as a representative parameter of exercise tolerance with clinical and laboratory data, including N-terminal pro-hormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), diastolic parameters on echocardiography, and the grade of myocardial fibrosis on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR).ResultsMedian peak VO₂, was 29.0 mL/kg/min (interquartile range [IQR], 25.0–34.0). Age (estimated β = −0.140, P < 0.001), female sex (β = −5.362, P < 0.001), NT-proBNP (β = −1.256, P < 0.001), and E/e′ ratio on echocardiography (β = −0.209, P = 0.019) were significantly associated with exercise capacity. Peak VO₂ was not associated with the amount of myocardial fibrosis on CMR (mean of late gadolinium enhancement 12.25 ± 9.67%LV).ConclusionDecreased exercise capacity was associated with age, female sex, increased NT-proBNP level, and E/e′ ratio on echocardiography. Hemodynamic changes and increased filling pressure on echocardiography should be monitored in this population for improved outcomes.     

An unusual association of endomyocardial fibrosis and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in a patient with heart failure

A 69-year-old female patient presented heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and atrial fibrillation. Echocardiography and late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance imaging were suggestive of endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF). The patient underwent cardiac surgery, and after surgery, she developed low cardiac output syndrome and died. Postmortem examination revealed residual fibrosis of the left ventricle (LV), mild endocardial fibrous deposition of the right ventricle, and severe concentric, symmetrical LV hypertrophy. Histological examination of the surgically resected material from the LV confirmed EMF. Histopathology of the interventricular septum disclosed myocardial hypertrophy and disarray plus fine interstitial fibrosis, typical of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The present case illustrates the association of two different patterns of cardiomyopathies in the same patient.     

Ischemia-modified albumin improves the usefulness of standard cardiac biomarkers for the diagnosis of myocardial ischemia in the emergency department setting

We studied the role of ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) with standard biomarkers (myoglobin, creatine kinase-MB [CK-MB], troponin I [TnI]) in assessment of 200 patients with suspected myocardial ischemia admitted to the emergency department. Every case was reviewed by a cardiologist. A clinical diagnosis of ischemia was assigned and correlated with biomarker test results. Of the patients, 25 (13.0%) had myocardial ischemia. Receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated IMA as highly sensitive but somewhat poorly specific for the presence of ischemia (area under curve, 0.63; P = .01). With a cut point of 90 U/mL, the Albumin Cobalt Binding Test had 80% sensitivity and 31% specificity for diagnosing ischemia and a negative predictive value of 92%. IMA was positive in 4 of 5 patients with electrocardiographic (ECG) evidence of ischemia and 16 of 20 patients with coronary ischemia but negative ECG. Among the same patients, the myoglobin-CK-MB-TnI triad had a sensitivity of 57%. The combination of IMA-myoglobin-CK-MB-TnI increased the sensitivity for detecting ischemia to 97%, with a negative predictive value of 92%. IMA is highly sensitive and has a high negative predictive value, which might improve the usefulness of standard biomarkers of myocardial ischemia.     

Cardiac Imaging of Acute Myocarditis Following COVID-19 mRNA Vaccination

Increasing rates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination coverage will result in more vaccine-related side effects, including acute myocarditis. In Korea, we present a 24-year-old male with acute myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination (BNT162b2). His chest pain developed the day after vaccination and cardiac biomarkers were elevated. Echocardiography showed minimal pericardial effusion but normal myocardial contractility. Electrocardiography revealed diffuse ST elevation in lead II, and V2-5. Cardiac magnetic resonance images showed the high signal intensity of T2- short tau inversion recovery image, the high value of T2 mapping sequence, and late gadolinium enhancement in basal inferior and inferolateral wall. It was presumed that COVID-19 mRNA vaccination was probably responsible for acute myocarditis. Clinical course of the patient was favorable and he was discharged without any adverse event.     

Pathological findings in cardiac apex removed during implantation of left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) are non-specific: 13-year-experience at a German Heart Center

Background and aim: Ventricular assist devices (VAD) have become an established therapy for patients with end-stage heart failure. The two main reasons for this development are the shortage of appropriate donor organs and the increasing number of patients waiting for heart transplantation (HTX). Furthermore, the enormous advances in the technical equipment and the rising clinical experience have improved the implantation technique, the durability and the long-term patient outcomes. Methods: We reviewed all cases of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation at our Erlangen Heart Center during January 2000-July 2013. The main aim of this study was to analyze the underlying pathology from the cardiac apex removed during the implantation. From all patients, we created a follow-up, analyzed the pathological features with the clinical diagnoses and described the overall outcome. Results: VAD implantation was performed in 266 cases at our center in the last 13 years (2.2% of the total of 12254 cardiac surgical operations in that period). From these patients, 223 underwent LVAD or biventricular (BVAD) implantation; the remaining received a right (RVAD) implantation. The most frequent underlying clinical diagnoses were dilated (n = 84, 37.7%, DCM) or ischemic (n = 61, 27.4%, ICM) cardiomyopathy. The pathological findings in the apex biopsy were generally non-specific and showed variable interstitial myocardial fibrosis with evidence of fibre loss, fatty degeneration and variable irregular atrophy of muscle fibres, consistent with dilated and ischemic cardiomyopathies as the most frequent causes of heart failure in these patients. Only a few cases showed other specific features such as myocarditis and AL-amyloidosis. Conclusions: Pathological findings in cardiac apex removed during LVAD implantation are rather non-specific and they generally reflect the late stage or consequences of chronic myocardial damage in cases of dilated or ischemic cardiomyopathies. Variable patchy chronic inflammatory changes may be observed in cardiomyopathies as a non-specific reaction caused by myocardial fiber damage and should not lead to misinterpretation as evidence of myocarditis or revision of original diagnosis.     

Characterization of the ultrashort‐TE (UTE) MR collagen signal

Although current cardiovascular MR (CMR) techniques for the detection of myocardial fibrosis have shown promise, they nevertheless depend on gadolinium‐based contrast agents and are not specific to collagen. In particular, the diagnosis of diffuse myocardial fibrosis, a precursor of heart failure, would benefit from a non‐invasive imaging technique that can detect collagen directly. Such a method could potentially replace the need for endomyocardial biopsy, the gold standard for the diagnosis of the disease. The objective of this study was to measure the MR properties of collagen using ultrashort TE (UTE), a technique that can detect short T₂* species. Experiments were performed in collagen solutions. Via a model of bi‐exponential T₂* with oscillation, a linear relationship (slope = 0.40 ± 0.01, R² = 0.99696) was determined between the UTE collagen signal fraction associated with these properties and the measured collagen concentration in solution. The UTE signal of protons in the collagen molecule was characterized as having a mean T₂* of 0.75 ± 0.05 ms and a mean chemical shift of ?3.56 ± 0.01 ppm relative to water at 7 T. The results indicated that collagen can be detected and quantified using UTE. A knowledge of the collagen signal properties could potentially be beneficial for the endogenous detection of myocardial fibrosis. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Myocardial fibrosis assessment by semiquantitative, point-counting and computer-based methods in patients with heart muscle disease: a comparative study

AIMS: No study has directly compared different histomorphometric methods of quantification of myocardial fibrosis. Therefore we compared the results of semiquantitative, point-counting and computer-based methods in the assessement of myocardial fibrosis in a consecutive series of endomyocardial biopsy samples from patients with heart muscle disease. METHODS AND RESULTS: Histological samples (at least three per patient) were obtained by endomyocardial biopsy from 11 patients with focal myocarditis and from 24 ambulatory patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, or during surgery in 10 patients who underwent partial left ventriculectomy. Samples were cut and stained with Masson-trichrome for better contrast. From each sample, a representative field was digitized, and the amount of fibrosis was assessed by semiquantitative scoring, by point-counting, and by computer-based software. Semiquantitative scoring correlated with both point-counting (Spearman's r = 0.69, P < 0.0001) and computer-based (Spearman's r = 0.83, P < 0.0001) methods. There was also a good correlation between point-counting and computer-based methods (r = 0.71, P < 0.0001). However, when compared with the point-counting method, the computer-based method overestimated percent fibrosis by 3.0 +/- 6.7% (P = 0.004). This overestimation correlated with the mean percent fibrosis (r = 0.38, P = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: Our data show good correlations between the three methods of myocardial fibrosis assessment. However, systematic differences between them emphasize that this should be taken into consideration when comparing results of the studies using different methods of fibrosis assessment.     

高频心电图诊断心肌炎的临床价值

为了探讨高频心电图 (HFECG)对心肌炎的诊断价值 ,对 80例心肌炎患者和32例正常人进行了HFECG研究。结果表明心肌炎患者的高频切迹数比正常人明显增多 (P <0 .0 5 ) ,对心肌炎的检出敏感性为 88.75 % ,特异性为 90 .6 3%。同时发现心肌炎患者的HFECG大多具有特殊图形 ,即QRS波群上出现连续明亮的亮点顿结 (Beading)或锯齿状的切迹 (Notching) ,以此图形来诊断心肌炎的符合率为 82 .5 %。结论 :HFECG的切迹计数和特殊图形的综合分析对心肌炎的准确诊断具有较高的临床价值。     

肌球蛋白诱导大鼠自身免疫性心肌炎不同时期心功能及心肌病理学变化

目的:观察心肌肌球蛋白诱导自身免疫性心肌炎不同时间实验大鼠心功能及心肌组织病理学动态变化。方法:以猪心肌肌球蛋白为致病性抗原,与完全弗氏佐剂等体积混合成乳浊液在实验第1天、8天、30天皮下注射免疫Lewis大鼠作为心肌炎组,以完全弗氏佐剂皮下注射大鼠作为对照组。HE染色和Masson染色观察两组大鼠初次免疫后第21天、30天、90天心肌病理变化,超声心动图检测两组大鼠初次免疫后第21天、30天、90天的射血分数(EF)、左室短轴缩短分数(FS)、左室舒张末内径(LVEDd)、左室收缩末内径(LV-EDs)及左心室后壁厚度(LVPW)等指标。结果:免疫后不同时间超声心动图检测提示心肌炎组大鼠心功能较对照组明显下降(EF:84.25±2.17%vs93.45±4.13%,P<0.05;FS:48.49±4.36%vs63.17±4.49%,P<0.05;LVEDd:3.66±0.35mmvs4.63±0.32mm,P<0.05)。免疫后第21天,HE染色见心肌炎组大鼠心肌细胞肿胀、变性、坏死及不同程度的急性炎性细胞浸润,至第90天心肌组织炎症减弱,间质出现纤维化,胶原容积分数升高,对照组大鼠未出现心肌炎症及纤维化。结论:心肌肌球蛋白可诱导大鼠实验性自身免疫性心肌炎,急性期心功能受损主要由心肌炎症引起,慢性期病理学改变主要表现为心肌纤维化。     

Contrast-enhanced computed tomography for demonstration of bilateral renal cortical necrosis

Bilateral renal cortical necrosis as a rare form of acute renal failure was encountered in two patients with sepsis and acute renal failure. In both cases contrast-enhanced computed tomography showed characteristic findings: absent spacification of the renal cortex and enhancement of subcapsular and juxtamedullary areas and of the medulla without excretion of contrast medium. Establishing an early diagnosis and visualizing the extent of renal cortical necrosis by means of contrast-enhanced computed tomography allow a prognostic evaluation of renal function and further planning of therapy. Correspondence to: P.R. Mertens