The role of multimodal imaging in the diagnostics of non-compaction cardiomyopathy (a clinical case)

Non-compaction cardiomyopathy is a rare heart disease of non-ischemic origin, which is characterized by increased myocardial trabecularity with deep intertrabecular recessions, which contributes to increased thrombogenicity, loss of myocardial contractility and heart failure manifestation. Despite of the increasing number of publications describing this pathology during last years, this form of cardiomyopathy remains underdiagnosed and little known for a wide range of physicians. The purpose of the study was to present the role of speckle tracking echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance tomography in the differential diagnosis of non-compaction cardiomyopathy. Results. It was described a clinical case of a 53-year old female with intact coronary arteries, who had been followed up for ten years with a diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy after the detection of a left bundle branch block. When performing standard echocardiography, a two-layer structure of the myocardium was found in the apical lateral segments of the left ventricle (LV) with the presence of hypertrabeculated internal layer and diffuse decrease in global LV contractility (three-dimensional ejection fraction 34 %). There was a decrease in LV global longitudinal strain up to 12 % measured by speckle-tracking echocardiography. Analysis of segmental myocardial deformation curves in conditions of left bundle branch block revealed the most prognostically unfavorable dyssynchrony pattern. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the presence of hypertrabecularity with compact to non-compact layer ratio of more than 1/2,5, which verified the diagnosis of non-compaction cardiomyopathy. Conclusions. The clinical manifestations of non-compaction cardiomyopathy are non-specific, therefore instrumental criteria play an important role in the diagnosis. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, three-dimensional and speckle-tracking echocardiography are reliable methods for diagnostics and prediction of this disease outcomes.