“Heavy hearted havoc” – A case series of petrified myocardium

A systematic review of radiological and histological findings of septic myocardial calcifications

Myocardial calcification is a life-threatening condition that is a recognised complication of ischaemic heart disease, cardiac surgery, rheumatic fever, myocarditis and sepsis. Only sparse data, reporting the clinical symptoms, the anatomo-pathological findings, the imaging findings have been published and no exhaustive analysis of all these factors exists in literature. To date, there have been 26 published cases in the medical literature in which myocardial calcifications is the consequence of a septic status. In this review, we will describe the main imaging and histological findings, with particular attention to the known and hypothesized mechanisms of myocardial calcifications. The results of this study may help clinicians and forensic pathologists to identify possible unrecognized cases and inspire the development of an international registry by which to coordinate further research.