Pediatric Myocarditis

  • Etiology:
    — Most commonly due to infection – coxsackie virus most common infectious cause in newborn
    — Less commonly due to toxic or ischemic or mechanical injury or drug related inflammation or transplant rejectionI
    — Inflammation of myocardial tissue leads to myocardial dysfunction which leads to pulmonary venous return obstruction
  • Imaging: Failure leads to acyanosis and increased pulmonary blood flow
  • Imaging:
    — Pericardial effusion in 33%-50%
    — Global left ventricular dysfunction in severe cases
  • Imaging MRI:
    — Need abnormalities on both T1WI and T2WI to make the diagnosis
    — T1WI post contrast: Biomarker of fibrosis with delayed enhancement of myocardium due to focal fibrosis
    — T2WI: Biomarker of edema with increased signal intensity of myocardium
  • DDX:
  • Complications:
  • Treatment: Heart transplant
  • Clinical:

Radiology Cases of Myocarditis

Radiology Cases of Myocarditis Due to Enterovirus

CXR of viral myocarditis
CXR AP shows cardiomegaly and pulmonary vascular congestion.

Radiology Cases of Myocarditis Due to Human Immunodeficiency Virus

CXR of pediatric myocarditis
CXR AP shows cardiomegaly and increased pulmonary vascularity.