ANTIMYOSIN ANTIBODY MYOCARDIAL SCINTIGRAPHY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF ACUTEMYOCARDITIS

The authors report three cases of acute myocarditis : the first patien t was a 23 year old woman treated for tuberculosis who presented with rapidly progressive congestive cardiac failure. The second patient was a 52 year old man with atypical chest pain and the third was a 55 yea r old woman presenting as an acute myocardial infarction. In all three cases, a positive antimyosin antibody myocardial scintigraphy support ed the presumptive diagnosis. The authors review the principles of the method and its potential indications, antimyosin antibody scintigraph y being able to demonstrate recent myocardial necrosis but not to iden tify the cause. The sensitivity of the technique is high (83 to 100 % according to the series) but the specificity is much lower (about 55 % ) compared with endomyocardial biopsy, an investigation which is speci fic but not very sensitive. Modifications of the antibody and the radi oactive tracer used at present should improve the diagnostic value of the technique in the near future.