Inflammatory process of the COVID-19 fulminant myocarditis in the multimodality imaging: a case report

Cardiac manifest of COVID-19 infection was widely reported. The pathophysiology is thought the combination of direct damage caused by viruses and myocardial inflammation caused by immune responses. We tracked the inflammatory process of fulminant myocarditis associated with COVID-19 infection using multi-modality imaging.

A 49-year-old male with COVID-19 went into cardiac arrest from severe left ventricular dysfunction and cardiac tamponade. He was treated with steroids, remdesivir, and tocilizumab but failed to maintain circulation. He recovered with pericardiocentesis and veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in addition to the immune suppression treatment. In this case, a series of chest computed tomography (CT) was performed on Days 4, 7, and 18 and cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) on Days 21, 53, and 145.

Analysis of the inflammatory findings on CT in this case showed that intense inflammation around the pericardial space was observed at an early stage of the disease. Although inflammatory findings in the pericardial space and chemical markers had improved according to non-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests, the MRI revealed a notable long inflammatory period more than 50 days.