Rationale and design of EACVI-INFLAME study: An international registry on multimodality imaging for suspicion of cardiovascular involvement due to inflammatory or autoimmune rheumatic diseases

Despite the high frequency of suspicion of cardiovascular (CV) involvement due to rare inflammatory or autoimmune diseases (including myocarditis, sarcoidosis, connective tissue disorders such as systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and systemic vasculitis) in clinical practice, comprehensive insights into their clinical presentation, management strategies, impact of multimodality imaging, and outcomes are not well established. The “EACVI-INFLAME Study” will be the first prospective international study endorsed by the EACVI assessing all consecutive patients with a suspicion of cardiovascular involvement due to rare inflammatory or autoimmune diseases to assess the proportion of confirmed cardiovascular involvement, and describe baseline epidemiological, cardiovascular imaging, management, and prognosis data. International prospective, multicentre, observational study led by the Heart Imagers of Tomorrow (HIT) of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI), which will include all consecutive patients with a suspicion of cardiovascular involvement due to inflammatory or autoimmune diseases referred for CMR and/or nuclear imaging exam. The ongoing recruitment will spread over 6 months, involving more than 120 centres across 35 countries. The primary outcome will be the proportion of confirmed cases inflammatory and or autoimmune diseases with cardiovascular involvement assessed over 6 months. We will then describe the clinical presentation, management strategies, cardiovascular imaging data, and 1-year prognosis of these patients ( Figure 1 ). Physicians will determine baseline evaluation, which may include the full spectrum of multimodality imaging, such as transthoracic echocardiography, cardiovascular magnetic resonance, nuclear imaging and computed tomography. Optionally, a dedicated core laboratory (MIRACL.ai) will analyse cardiovascular imaging data from participating centres. The EACVI-INFLAME study will be the first and largest international multicentre study evaluating a cohort of patients with suspected cardiovascular involvement of an inflammatory or autoimmune diseases to determine the diagnostic impact, prognostic value, in the context of the evolving landscape of CV multimodality imaging.