The clinical and pathologic features of 18 consecutive patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy at The Johns Hopkins Hospital were examined in an attempt to define the incidence of myocarditis and to determine its response to immunosuppressive agents. In addition to routine studies, patients were evaluated with echocardiography, nuclear ventriculography, right heart catheterization, and myocardi...

The infectious etiology of myocarditis often remains unidentified. We report a case of myocarditis associated with human parechovirus (HPeV) infection in an adult. HPeV is an emerging pathogen that can cause serious illness, including myocarditis, in adults. Testing for HPeV should be considered in differential diagnosis of myocarditis.

Based on the definition in the European Society of Cardiology statement, myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium diagnosed by established histological, immunological, and immunohistochemical criteria, whereas inflammatory cardiomyopathy is myocarditis in association with cardiac dysfunction. Actual incidences of myocarditis and CMi are difficult to determine. Studies addressing...

Myocarditis is the term used to describe acute or chronic inflammation of the myocardium. For two decades, there has been increasing confrontations concerning the diagnosis, management and clinical outcome of the myocarditis. The cause of myocarditis frequently remains unknown. However, infections, systemic diseases, toxins and drugs have been reported being associated with inflammation of the ...

BACKGROUND Epidemiology of myocarditis in childhood is largely unknown. Men are known to have a higher incidence of myocarditis than women in adults aged <50 years, but whether this is true by sex in pediatric age groups is unknown. We set out to study the occurrence and potential sex differences of myocarditis in a general pediatric population. METHODS AND RESULTS Data of all hospital admiss...

Current standards for detection of myocarditis in a clinical setting rely on endomyocardial biopsy for accurate diagnosis. With this technique a subset of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy show unsuspected myocarditis histologically. Endomyocardial biopsy, despite its specificity, may lack sensitivity due to sampling error if the inflammation is patchy or focal. Therefore, inflammation-sensi...

BACKGROUND To elucidate the mechanisms of immune-related myocardial injuries, we examined whether autoimmune myocarditis was passively transferable by use of humoral or cellular factors. METHODS AND RESULTS Active myocarditis was elicited in Lewis rats by immunization with human cardiac myosin fraction in complete Freund's adjuvant. This experimental myocarditis was characterized by macroscop...

Myocarditis, characterized by myocardial inflammation, may lead to left ventricular dysfunction, heart failure, arrhythmias, conduction system disorders, and sudden death. While lymphocytic infiltration is most common, both eosinophilic and giant cell myocarditis are recognized entities. Lymphocytic myocarditis may result from systemic endocrinological, rheumatological, or toxic disorders; but ...

BACKGROUND Myocarditis can cause dilated cardiomyopathy resulting in end-stage heart failure requiring advanced therapies. There is little contemporary information on the clinical progression, need for mechanical circulatory support, and outcomes of orthotopic heart transplantation of these patients. METHODS AND RESULTS We queried the UNOS database (United Network for Organ Sharing) for all a...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the likelihood of and patient features associated with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) versus acute myocarditis in different population segments. DESIGN Nationwide, multihospital observational retrospective registry study of 9.6 years in Finland. PARTICIPANTS All consecutive patients aged ≥18 years hospitalised with a primary diagnosis of AMI (n=89 399) or acute myoc...