Novel ways to noninvasively detect inflammation of the myocardium: contrast-enhanced MRI and myocardial contrast echocardiography.

Both contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (CE-MRI) and myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) are promising tools to detect cardiac inflammation. CE-MRI can be used to characterise the location and extent of myocardial inflammation, since areas of abnormal signal enhancement associated with regional wall motion abnormalities reliably indicate areas of active myocarditis. In MCE, chemically composed microbubbles can be visualised by ultrasound and used to determine the status of the cardiac microvasculature. If there is any inflammation the microbubbles will be phagocytosed by neutrophils and monocytes, thus enabling the degree of inflammation to be assessed. These noninvasive techniques may allow early diagnosis and accurate evaluation of myocardial inflammation.