Antibiotics are indicated for myocarditis, when the cause of the disease is a bacterium. Very frequently it is Borrelia burgdorferi which is transferred by ticks and causes Lyme disease. Treatment is under way mostly for several weeks and antibiotics are often administered intravenously (into a vein). Some of the antibiotics in this group include cefalosporines, tetracyclines, penicillin and erythromycin. In complicated myocarditis higher doses of antibiotics are indicated. Antibiotics are indicated according to the results of a sensitivity test on discovered bacterial cause. In some cases, antibiotics are indicated as a prevention of secondary infection.

Picture 25: Ceftriaxon molekule(author: MarinaVladivostok)

Antivirotics should according to the predictions of physicians play a crucial role in the treatment of viral myocarditis, however researches have not confirmed this prediction. They have shown that the role of antivirotics in the treatment of myocarditis is very limited and that they have not so strong effect as was initially predicted. This effect was observed only in situations where antivirotics were administrated before the onset of infection itself or during first 4 days of infection (myocarditis) in phase of viremia (see this link). However, in this phase most patients do not arrive in specialized centres that deal with treatment of myocarditis. In later phases, the effects of antivirotics are small and their use in later phases is individual and are indicated for example in a situation that patient´s state of health is getting worse and he/she does not respond to standard treatment. The limited benefits of antivirotics in later phases of the disease are also complicated by the fact that there are not antivirotics against every virus and that some antivirotics have many unfavourable side-effects.

Author of the opening picture: MarinaVladivostok