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Open AccessCase report

Time course of eosinophilic myocarditis visualized by CMR

Kurt Debl email, Behrus Djavidani email, Stefan Buchner email, Florian Poschenrieder email, Norbert Heinicke email, Stefan Feuerbach email, Gunter Riegger email and Andreas Luchner email

Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 2008, 10:21doi:10.1186/1532-429X-10-21

Published: 8 May 2008

Abstract (provisional)

We report the diagnostic potential of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) to visualize the time course of eosinophilic myocarditis upon successful treatment. A 50-year-old man was admitted with a progressive heart failure. Endomyocardial biopsies were taken from the left ventricle because of a white blood cell count of 17000/mm^3 with 41 % eosinophils. Histological evaluation revealed endomyocardial eosinophilic infiltration and areas of myocyte necrosis. The patient was diagnosed with hypereosinophilic myocarditis due to idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome. CMR-studies at presentation and a follow-up study 3 weeks later showed diffuse subendocardial LGE in the whole left ventricle. Upon treatment with steroids, CMR-studies revealed marked reduction of subendocardial LGE after 3 months in parallel with further clinical improvement. This case therefore highlights the clinical importance of CMR to visualize the extent of endomyocardial involvement in the diagnosis and treatment of eosinophilic myocarditis.

The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.


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