JACC. Cardiovascular imaging
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JACC Cardiovasc Imaging · Feb 2020
ReviewMyocarditis in Athletes Is a Challenge: Diagnosis, Risk Stratification, and Uncertainties.
Presentation of myocarditis in athletes is heterogeneous and establishing the diagnosis is challenging with no current uniform clinical gold standard. The combined information from symptoms, electrocardiography, laboratory testing, echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, and in certain cases endomyocardial biopsy helps to establish the diagnosis. Most patients with myocarditis recover spontaneously; however, athletes may be at higher risk of adverse cardiac events. ⋯ This may enable cardiac caregivers to counsel athletes with suspected myocarditis more systematically and furthermore allow for pooling of more unified data. To modify recommendations regarding sports behavior in athletes with myocarditis, evidence, based on large multicenter registries including cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and endomyocardial biopsy, is needed. In the future, physicians might rely on combined novel risk stratification methods, by implementing both noninvasive and invasive tissue characterization methods.