Thallium-201 myocardial perfusion imaging in myocarditis

TI-201 myocardial perfusion imaging was performed in six patients with clinically documented myocarditis. Each case manifested electrocardiographic abnormalities with elevation of serum cardiac enzymes and no significant stenosis of the coronary arteries observed on angiogram. Resting TI-201 images were visually assessed by three observers. Focal perfusion defects were observed in three cases (50%), among which two showed multiple perfusion defects. Emission computed tomography using TI-201 clearly delineated multifocal lesions in the first case. On the other hand, no significant perfusion defects were noted in the remaining three cases. Thus, myocarditis should be considered as one of the disease entities that may produce perfusion defects on TI-201 myocardial imaging.