[The role of echocardiography in the evaluation of cardiac damage in Lyme disease].

Lyme disease is an infectious, multisystem disease involving the skin, heart, joints, and nervous system. With its ability to assess cardiac anatomy, chamber sizes and myocardial and valvular function, echocardiography is a powerful noninvasive tool to investigate possible cardiac involvement in this disorder. We studied by echocardiography 15 patients, (6 women and 9 men, mean age 28.5 years, range 17 to 42) with clinical and electrocardiographic changes compatible with acute myocarditis or myopericarditis. 14 patients (pts) had transitory complete heart block and one patient had ventricular extrasystolic arhythmia. A first patient group (n = 6) who had a tick bite (Lyme antibody titers were found in three patents) was compared with a group (n = 9) without such confirmation. In first group two pts had small pericardial effusion and two pts had a nonspecific, discrete and small myocardial fibrosis after 3-6 months echocardiographic follow-up. Chambers sizes and indexes of left ventricular systolic and diastolic function were normal. Similar findings were found in the other group. We concluded that echocardiographic findings is not specific for Lyme disease, but echocardiography is an excellent tool for assessing the presence and degree of cardiac dysfunction and therefore provides essential information for the management of these patients.