Clinical Value of Echocardiographic Tissue Characterization in the Diagnosis of Myocarditis

Abstract

In international literature there are increasing indications that dilated cardiomyopathy is the result of an unrecognized episode of myocarditis (1). As no dependable clinical and praclinical diagnostic model exists for detecting florid myocarditis, endomyocardial biopsy remains the only sure means of diagnosing myocarditis. Although endomyocardial biopsy have a relatively low complication rate, they are nevertheless an invasive procedure. The consideration of using ultrasound for tissue characterization of the myocardium based upon the assumption that a reproducible connection exists between the anatomical structure of tissue and ist acoustical properties. Inflammatory changes of myocardium have been visually observed as alterations on echocardiograms. The goal of this study was to determine how these myocardial changes affect the texture of echocardiographic images, and how these could be described through quantitative texture analysis.