Evaluating Subclinical Myocardial Injury in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients Using CMR Feature Tracking

Motivation: Early detection of myocardial injury in Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients is important. Goal(s): Find a clinical biomarker for preclinical myocardial injury in SLE patients. Approach: CMR-FT (Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking) technology and CVI 42 software were used to measure cardiac functional parameters and myocardial strain parameters for SLE patients with/without subclinical myocardial injury and healthy controls. Results: Compared to the control group, the circumferential strain (CS) and longitudinal strain (LS) were found to be reduced in patients with subclinical myocardial injury in SLE. The CMR-FT technology was able to detect changes in myocardial strain before a decrease in ejection fraction occurred. Impact: Early detection of myocardial injury in SLE patients and proactive treatment are important for improving patient outcomes. This study found that CMR-FT quantitative technique can identify subclinical myocardial damage in patients with SLE.