Diagnosis of myocarditis mimicking arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy: the role of endomyocardial biopsy guided by electroanatomic voltage map.

摘要

Pieroni et al. (1) recently reported a 50% prevalence of right ventricular (RV) myocarditis in a cohort of 30 patients fulfilling standardized diagnostic criteria for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). The differential diagnosis between myocarditis and ARVC was obtained by performing electroana-tomic mapping of the RV and then focusing, "for the first time," an endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) on selected pathological areas characterized by low-voltage potentials (electroanatomic mapping-guided EMB). Adopting this "novel diagnostic technique," Pieroni et al. (1) significantly modified the initial ARVC diagnosis.