Correlation of left ventricular wall thickness, heart mass, serological parameters and late gadolinium enhancement in cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging of myocardial inflammation in an experimental animal model of autoimmune myocarditis

For a definitive diagnosis of myocarditis, different strategies like analysis of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) in cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) up to invasive endomyocardial biopsy have been applied. The objective of the study was to investigate inflammatory changes like left ventricular wall thickening and increase of ventricular mass and to quantitatively analyse their correlation with extent and localisation of myocardial damage in CMR and with subsequent changes of serological markers in an animal model of an experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM). In the current study, an EAM was induced in 10 male Lewis rats, 10 rats served as control. On day 21, animals were examined with four CMR protocols to assess the extent of LGE in a 12 segment model of the rat heart. Left myocardial wall thickness and mass and histological grade of inflammation were measured to determine localisation and severity of the induced myocarditis. Depending on the CMR sequence, LGE was mostly found in the left anterior (9.6%) and left lateral (8.7%) myocardial wall segments. Wall thickness correlated with the LGE area in CMR imaging and the histopathological severity of myocarditis for the left lateral myocardial wall segment. In a similar way, the heart mass correlated to the extent of LGE for the left lateral segment. We conclude that in our animal model left ventricular wall thickness and mass reflect the severity of myocardial changes in myocarditis and that the EAM rat model is well suited for further investigations of myocarditis.