Myopericarditis vs Pericarditis

Acute pericarditis may be accompanied by some myocardial involvement. Once the diagnosis of acute pericarditis has been made one should consider whether there is any myocardial involvement. Troponin cannot be used to discriminate alone [9], however new onset of focal or depressed LV function on echocardiography would indicate inflammatory involvement and damage to the myocardium. A diagnosis of myopericarditis requires full clinical assessment including ECG, troponin and echocardiography.

Learning bite

Although Troponin levels are elevated in 30-70% of patients with ‘pericarditis’, and alone they offer poor prognostic information [8], the presence will warrant further assessment to exclude myopericarditis.