New electrocardiographic criteria to differentiate acute pericarditis and myocardial infarction

Natural Course of Electrocardiogram Changes and the Value of Multimodality Imaging in Acute Pericarditis

BACKGROUND

ECG is the initial diagnostic tool that in combination with typical symptoms often raises the suspicion of pericarditis. Echocardiography remains the first-line imaging modality for assessment of pericardial diseases, particularly effusion/tamponade, constrictive physiology, and assessment of regional wall motion abnormalities as differential diagnoses. However, cardiac CT and cardiac magnetic resonance may be necessary in complicated cases and to identify pericardial inflammation in specific settings (atypical presentation, new onset constriction), as well as myocardial involvement and monitoring the disease activity.

SUMMARY

In acute pericarditis, the most commonly used ECG criteria recommended by international guidelines are the widespread ST-segment elevation or PR depression. However, the classic ECG pattern of widespread ST-segment elevation or PR depression can be seen in less than 60% of patients. In addition, ECG changes are often temporally dynamic, evolve rapidly during the course of disease, and may be influenced by a number of factors such as disease severity, time (stage) of presentation, degree of myocardial involvement, and the treatment initiated. Overall, temporal dynamic changes on ECG during acute pericarditis or myopericarditis have received limited attention. Hence, the aim of this brief clinical review was to increase awareness about the various ECG changes observed during the course of acute pericarditis.

KEY MESSAGES

ECG may be normal at presentation or for days after the index episode of chest pain, but serial ECGs can reveal specific patterns of temporally dynamic ST elevation in patients with pericarditis or myopericarditis, particularly during new episodes of chest pain.

Clinical and electrocardiographic characteristics in patients with fulminant myocarditis

Background

The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical and electrocardiographic characteristics in patients with fulminant myocarditis.

Methods

A total of 72 patients were divided into three groups: pericarditis (control: n = 25), acute myocarditis (n = 27), and fulminant myocarditis (n = 20). Patients' characteristics and electrocardiograms on admission were retrospectively analyzed in the three groups.

Results

BNP levels in the fulminant group were significantly higher than those in the other two groups. ST elevation was observed at lead aVR in the fulminant myocarditis group, whereas ST depression was observed at lead aVR in the other groups (p = .001). The maximum degree of ST elevation among the three groups was similar. However, the number of ST‐elevation leads in the fulminant myocarditis group was significantly lower than that in the other groups (p = .004). The voltage of R wave in lead V5 in the fulminant myocarditis group was significantly lower than that in the other groups (p = .005). Moreover, in the Cabrera sequence, the prevalence of ST elevation in the inferior leads, aVR, and V3–V6 in the fulminant myocarditis group was significantly or nearly significantly lower than that in the other groups.

Conclusions

In fulminant myocarditis, ST‐segment elevation was observed in lead aVR, and contrarily, the number and extent of ST‐segment elevation and R wave voltage were smaller than those in the other groups. These results suggest that the number of myocytes with maintained action potential may be reduced following progressive myocardial damage and interstitial edema due to severe inflammation.

Symptomatic Young Adults with ST-Segment Elevation-Acute Coronary Syndrome or Myocarditis: The Three-Factor Diagnostic Model

Myocarditis may mimic myocardial infarction (MI) due to a similar clinical presentation, including chest pain, electrocardiography changes, and laboratory findings. The purpose of the study was to investigate the diagnostic value of clinical, laboratory, and electrocardiography characteristics of patients with acute coronary syndrome - like myocarditis and MI. We analysed 90 patients (≤45 years old) with an initial diagnosis of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction; 40 patients (44.4%), through the use of cardiac magnetic resonance, were confirmed to have myocarditis, and 50 patients (55.6%) were diagnosed with MI. Patients with myocarditis were younger and had fewer cardiovascular risk factors than those with MI. The cutoff value distinguishing between myocarditis and MI was defined as the age of 36 years. The history of recent infections (82.5% vs. 6%) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels on admission (Me 45.9 vs. 3.4) was more associated with myocarditis. Further, the QTc interval was inversely correlated with the echocardiographic ejection fraction in both groups but was significantly longer in patients with MI. Non-invasive diagnostics based on clinical features and laboratory findings are basic but still essential tools for differentiation between MI and myocarditis. The three-factor model including the criteria of age, abnormal CRP, and history of recent infections might become a valuable clinical indication.

MCG-Net: End-to-end Fine-grained Delineation and Diagnostic Classification of Cardiac Events from Magnetocardiographs

In this paper, we propose an end-to-end deep learning architecture, referred as MCG-Net, integrating convolutional neural network (CNN) with transformer-based global context block for fine-grained delineation and diagnostic classification of four cardiac events from magnetocardiogram (MCG) data, namely Q-, R-, S- and T-waves. MCG-Net} takes advantage of a multi-resolution CNN backbone as well as the state-of-the-art (SOTA) transformer encoders that facilitate global temporal feature aggregation. Besides the novel network architecture, we introduce a multi-task learning scheme to achieve simultaneous delineation and classification. Specifically, the problem of MCG delineation is formulated as multi-class heatmap regression. Meanwhile, a binary diagnostic classification label as well as a duration are jointly estimated for each cardiac event using features that are temporally aligned by event heatmaps. The framework is evaluated on a clinical MCG dataset, containing data collected from 270 subjects with cardiac anomalies and 108 control subjects. We designed and conducted a two-fold cross-validation study to validate the proposed method and to compare its performance with the SOTA methods. Experimental results demonstrated that our method outperformed counterparts on both event delineation and diagnostic classification tasks, achieving respectively an average ECG-F1 of 0.987 and an average Event-F1 of 0.975 for MCG delineation, and an average accuracy of 0.870, an average sensitivity of 0.732, an average specificity of 0.914 and an average AUC of 0.903 for diagnostic classification. Comprehensive ablation experiments are additionally performed to investigate effectiveness of different network components.

Electrocardiogram evolution of acute anterior ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction following pericarditis

Electrocardiogram is a powerful tool for differentiating acute ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and pericarditis. However, an unusual ECG presentation of the simultaneous occurrence of the two conditions has not been reported previously. In this article, we report a case of ECG evolution of acute anterior STEMI following pericarditis with pericardial effusion (PE) and find that QRS complex widening in ECG lead with maximal ST‐segment elevation is also applicable for identifying STEMI even in patients with prior pericarditis. Undoubtedly, our case can help prevent emergency physicians from making incorrect diagnoses and administering inappropriate treatments.

Correlation of Prolonged Corrected QT Interval With Ventricular Arrhythmias and In-Hospital Mortality Among ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients: A Mystique or Lucidity?

Background Ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) are a frequent cause of cardiovascular mortality, especially in developing countries. Prolongation of corrected QT (QTc) interval predisposes patients to life-threatening VAs. Our study aims to assess the correlation of prolonged QTc interval with VAs and in-hospital mortality among ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients.  Methods This cross-sectional study analyzed the data from 40 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of STEMI and prolonged QTc interval. The patients were evaluated for several characteristics including their electrocardiography (ECG) findings. The frequency of in-hospital mortality and VAs developed after admission were recorded. Spearman correlation was used to assess the correlation of prolonged QTc interval with VAs and in-hospital mortality. Results Out of 40 cases, 30 patients were males and 10 were females with a mean age hovering at 52.95 ± 10.65 years. The mean QTc interval of our patients was 512.02 ± 49.74 milliseconds (ms). A total of 11 (27.5%) patients developed VAs while 14 (35%) of the patients succumbed to the disease complications. Spearman correlation showed a strong significant positive correlation of QTc interval with VAs (rho = 0.658, p < 0.001) and in-hospital mortality (rho = 0.314, p = 0.04). Conclusion Prolonged QTc interval is positively correlated with VAs and in-hospital mortality among STEMI patients. These patients should be regularly monitored and must be managed with caution as they have increased chances to develop VAs and in-hospital mortality. There is an utmost need for curation of guidelines that aid in risk stratification and appropriate management of such patients.

The Electrocardiogram in the Differential Diagnosis of Cardiologic Conditions Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Sars-CoV infection and COVID-19 as a pandemic and global emergency. In addition to viral pneumonia and the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), the heart is affected in some patients due to the detection of biomarkers and reported cases of myocarditis and pericarditis. Therefore, the knowledge of electrocardiogram presentation of these actual infections can guide the choice for the best treatment and can help to reduce misdiagnosis, mainly the acute myocardial infarction, which is the main differential diagnosis.

Triangular QRS-ST-T Waveform Electrocardiographic Pattern in Acute Myopericarditis: A Case Report from a Limited-Resources Hospital

BACKGROUND Triangular QRS-ST-T waveform (TW) electrocardiography pattern has been found to be associated with poor prognosis in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). It identifies a subset of patients at high risk of both ventricular fibrillation and cardiogenic shock, with high in-hospital mortality. Therefore, aggressive treatment is needed in patients presenting with this electrocardiography pattern. However, this pattern is rarely present in non-ischemic cardiac diseases. CASE REPORT We report the case of a 50-year-old man who came to our emergency room with a chief complaint of gastrointestinal problems and partial bowel obstruction. After failure of initial conservative treatment, laparotomy was planned. Just before the surgery, the patient felt a non-specific chest discomfort and showed ST-segment elevation on ECG and slight elevation of cardiac enzyme. He was then treated for STEMI with an intravenous thrombolytic. However, the degree of ST-segment elevation further increased and showed a TW pattern. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a moderate pericardial effusion with normal ejection fraction and a normokinetic left ventricle; hence, a diagnosis of acute myopericarditis was made. After treatment with low-dose steroid and colchicine, his symptoms improved, the electrocardiography pattern returned to normal, and the gastrointestinal symptoms resolved. CONCLUSIONS To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of an acute myopericarditis presenting with a TW electrocardiography pattern. Myopericarditis should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of acute chest pain and ST segment electrocardiography changes, including TW pattern. The use of echocardiography can help determine the diagnosis of myopericarditis.

In-Hospital Prognostic Value of Electrocardiographic Parameters Other Than ST-Segment Changes in Acute Myocardial Infarction: Literature Review and Future Perspectives

Electrocardiography (ECG) remains an irreplaceable tool in the management of the patients with myocardial infarction, with evaluation of the QRS and ST segment being the present major focus. Several ECG parameters have already been proposed to have prognostic value with regard to both in-hospital and long-term follow-up of patients. In this review, we discuss various ECG parameters other than ST segment changes, particularly with regard to their in-hospital prognostic importance. Our review not only evaluates the prognostic segments and parts of ECG, but also highlights the need for an integrative approach in big data to re-assess the parameters reported to predict in-hospital prognosis. The evolving importance of artificial intelligence in evaluation of ECG, particularly with regard to predicting prognosis, and the potential integration with other patient characteristics to predict prognosis, are discussed.

PR depression with multilead ST elevation and ST depression in aVR by left circumflex artery occlusion: How to differentiate from acute pericarditis

PR‐segment depression with multilead ST‐segment elevation and ST‐segment depression in lead aVR are classic ECG manifestation of acute pericarditis. We present a patient, where the etiology of these ECG features was acute ST‐elevation myocardial infarction due to left circumflex artery occlusion. To avoid misdiagnosis, unnecessary examinations, and inappropriate therapeutic decisions, the possibility of ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction should be kept in mind even when ECG changes typical for pericarditis are encountered in chest pain patients. Findings of QRS widening and QT interval shortening in leads with ST‐segment elevation could help to differentiate acute ST‐segment elevation myocardial infarction from acute pericarditis.

Comparison of QRS Duration and Associated Cardiovascular Events in American Indian Men Versus Women (The Strong Heart Study)

Electrocardiographic QRS duration at rest is associated with sudden cardiac death and death from coronary heart disease in the general population. However, its relation to cardiovascular events in American Indians, a population with persistently high cardiovascular disease mortality, is unknown. The relation of QRS duration to incident cardiovascular disease during 17.2 years of follow-up was assessed in 1,851 male and female Strong Heart Study participants aged 45 to 74 years without known cardiovascular disease at baseline. Cox regression with robust standard error estimates was used to determine the association between quintiles of QRS duration and incident cardiovascular disease in gender-stratified analyses, adjusted for age, systolic blood pressure, hypertension, antihypertensive medication use, body mass index, current smoking, diabetes, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and albuminuria. In women only, QRS duration in the highest quintile (≥105 ms) conferred significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease than QRS duration in the lowest quintile (64 to 84 ms) (hazard ratio 1.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.4) likely because of higher risks of coronary heart disease (hazard ratio 1.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.1) and myocardial infarction (hazard ratio 2.1, 95% CI 1.0 to 4.7). Furthermore, when added to the Strong Heart Study Coronary Heart Disease Risk Calculator, QRS duration significantly improved prediction of future coronary heart disease events in women (Net Reclassification Index 0.17, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.47). In conclusion, QRS duration is an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease in women in the Strong Heart Study cohort and may have value in estimating risk in populations with similar risk profiles and a high lifetime incidence of cardiovascular disease.

Typical pericarditis ECG findings after falling from height. The PR segment depression or ST segment elevation?

Acute pericarditis (AP) following blunt thoracic trauma is rare and difficult to diagnosis. A 43-year-old man with offered to the emergency department (ED) after falling from height before a week ago. The ECG performed in the ED was abnormal, ECG revealed PR segment depression in leads DII, DIII, aVF, and V3-6 and a preliminary diagnosis of acute inferolateral STEMI was presumed. Patients have evidence of systemic inflammation, including leukocytosis, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate. We are reporting a case of post-traumatic acute pericarditis presenting with PR-segment depression and normal cardiac enzymes mimicking acute STEMI.

Case Report and Review of Management of Penetrating Trauma and Cardiac Pericarditis

Acute pericarditis is the most common form of pericardial disease worldwide and it has many potential etiologies. This case study examines a patient admitted for multiple gunshot wounds who developed acute pericarditis postpericardial drain removal. The initial penetrating abdominal trauma, along with facial injuries and a suspected myocardial infarction, led to confusion in which the initial etiology of pericarditis was missed, creating a delay in overall patient care and extended length of stay.

Persistent PR segment change in malignant pericardial disease

Background

Electrocardiographic changes may manifest in patients with pericardial effusions. PR segment changes are frequently overlooked, but when present, can provide diagnostic significance. The diagnostic value of PR segment changes in determining benign versus malignant pericardial disease in cancer patients with pericardial effusions has not been investigated. We aimed to determine the relationship between PR segment changes and malignant pericardial disease in cancer patients presenting with pericardial effusions.

Methods

Consecutive patients with active malignancy who underwent surgical subxiphoid pericardial window by a single thoracic surgeon between 2011 and 2014 were included in this study. A total of 104 pre- and post-operative ECGs were reviewed, and PR depression or elevation was defined by deviation of at least 0.5 millivolts from the TP segment using a magnifying glass. Pericardial fluid cytology, flow cytometry and tissue biopsy were evaluated. Baseline characteristics and co-morbidities were compared between cancer patients with benign and malignant pericardial effusions.

Results

A total of 26 patients with active malignancy and pericardial effusion who underwent pericardial window over the study period were included. Eighteen (69 %) patients had isoelectric PR segments, of whom none (0 %) had evidence of malignant pericardial disease (100 % negative predictive value). Eight (31 %) patients had significant ECG findings (PR segment depression in leads II, III and/or aVF as well as PR elevation in aVR/V1), all 8 (100 %) of whom had pathologically confirmed malignant pericardial disease (100 % positive predictive value). PR segment changes in all 8 patients persisted (up to 11 months) on post-operative serial ECGs. The PR segment changes had no relationship to heart rate or the time of atrial-ventricular conduction.

Conclusions

In patients with active cancer presenting with pericardial effusion, the presence of PR segment changes is highly predictive of active malignant pericardial disease. When present, PR changes typically persist on serial ECGs even after pericardial window.

Long QT syndrome associated with adrenal insufficiency in a patient with isolated adrenocorticotropic hormone deficiency

QT prolongation and Torsades de Pointes were observed in a 44-year-old woman who had adrenal insufficiency caused by isolated adrenocorticotropic hormone deficiency. Although she had several risk factors for QT prolongation, we concluded that the adrenal insufficiency contributed to the QT prolongation, because the electrocardiographic changes were improved after steroid replacement therapy. It is known that the QT interval in a patient with adrenal insufficiency tends to be extended. However, reports on adrenal insufficiency in which the QT interval was sufficiently prolonged to cause Torsades de Pointes are rare. Clinicians should consider the possibility of adrenal insufficiency in patients with QT prolongation.