Speckle tracking echocardiography in a patient with viral myocarditis and acute myocardial infarction

The present case of a patient with acute myocarditis with preserved left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction at the acute stage illustrates the obvious impairment of circumferential and rotational deformation, which can be documented by speckle tracking echocardiography. Thus, qualitative patterns of LV twist, radial strain, and circumferential layer strain, might be a new approach to detect acute myocarditis. The early diagnosis of acute myocarditis by echocardiography is important because of the considerable risk of cardiovascular morbidity as documented by the occurrence of an acute myocardial infarction presumably induced by inflammatory process in this case.