Acute Viral Myocarditis Mimicking ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Manifestation on Cardiac Magnetic Resonance

Li, Yi-Da
Hsiao, Fu-Tsung
Lai, Cha-Po
Chen, Chih-Wei

Received: March 9, 2009 Accepted: May 26, 2009

¹Section of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine; ²Department of Radiology, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chia-Yi, Taiwan; ³College of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr. Chih-Wei Chen, Section of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital. Tel: 886–935–609962; E-mail: [email protected]

Acta Cardiologica Sinica 26(1):p 44-47, March 2010.

A 58-year-old man presented himself to the emergency room with chief complaints of chest pain and progressively exacerbated dyspnea for 4 days. Electrocardiography showed Q wave and ST-segment elevation in inferior leads. A thallium scan showed mixed ischemia and infarction in the inferior wall of the left ventricle. However, coronary artery angiography showed normal coronary arteries. Cardiac magnetic resonance showed a typical pattern of delayed enhancement in acute myocarditis. A viral serological study identified coxsackievirus B6 infection. We report a case of acute viral myocarditis mimicking ST elevation myocardial infarction and suggest that cardiac magnetic resonance with Gadolinium enhancement might be an effective method to detect acute viral myocarditis.