Assessment of radiological techniques application possibility for non-invasive diagnostics of latent inflammatory processes in myocardium in patients with atrial fibrillation

Objective Aim was to study the performance of single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with 99m Tc-pyrophosphate ( 99m Tc-PYP) in diagnostics of chronic latent inflammation in myocardium of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods The research included 70 patients (the average age of 49.3 ± 10.2 years) with persistent form of idiopathic AF. All patients underwent myocardium SPECT with 99m Tc-PYP and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) before the ablation. During the ablation endomyocardium sampling for histological and immunohistochemical verification of myocarditis was performed. Results Sensitivity of SPECT with 99m Tc-PYP in diagnoses of chronic latent myocarditis in patients with AF in relation to endomyocardial biopsy was 80 %, specificity—83 % and diagnostic accuracy—82 %. Sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of myocardium perfusion scintigraphy for diagnostics of latent myocarditis in relation to endomyocardial biopsy was 30, 50 and 50 % correspondingly. Also the close correlation between the size of the perfusion defect and the severity of myocardial fibrosis in patients with AF was revealed. Specificity of the Lake Louise criteria for diagnostics of latent myocarditis in relation to endomyocardial biopsy was 77.6 %, sensitivity—60 % and diagnostic accuracy—74.5 %. For only LGE specificity was 16 %, sensitivity—90 % and diagnostic accuracy—28 %. Conclusions The study showed the possibility of successful application of radionuclide methods for diagnoses of chronic latent myocarditis at AF. Taking into account high informative values the results of scintigraphy can be also considered as a promising additional criteria for selecting patients with AF of unexplained etiology for non-invasive endomyocardial biopsy procedure.