Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the heart muscle (myocardium). Inflammation is to be found either just on a few places of the myocardium (so called nidus) and in the entire heart muscle (so call diffusion inflammation). Inflammation is caused mostly by a virus. Myocarditis is associated with damage and necrosis of the heart muscle cells. The course of myocarditis can be different for each individual (it can even go without any symptoms – asymptomatically). The disease has a different onset and course for every patient and therefore patients with myocarditis are treated individually. Myocarditis is a serious and in some cases life-threatening disease. Diagnosis of myocarditis is one of the most complicated in cardiology. There is no specific examination or test that could diagnostic myocarditis. Doctors always need a “set” of tests (see this page). Myocarditis could be mistaken in some cases as a heart attack or other ischemic heart disease (ischemic – hypoperfusion)….
Myocarditis can be brought by a wide range of infectious and non-infectious causes. Mostly (in up to 95% cases) it is caused by some of virus, less often by bacterium, parasites (mainly in South and Central America) and rarely by fungus, toxins and drugs (in this case we talk about so called hypersensitive eosinophilic myocarditis) or myocarditis is a consequence of other, mostly autoimmune diseases…
The most common causes of myocarditis are different kinds of viruses and each of them damages the heart in different way. Less often myocarditis can be cause by bacterium, fungi, parasites, toxins, drugs or myocarditis can be a complication of another, mostly autoimmune disease. During viral myocarditis, the heart damage is developing during several successive phases and the patient can pass through up to three phases of the disease. The first phase of myocarditis is associated with viremia, when cells of the heart muscle are damaged by the virus itself. The virus affects the heart muscle cells or the cells of vessels nearby. The virus uses them for its replication and in the process, damages and destroys them. The second phase of the disease comes after several days (ca 4 days) from viremia. The immune system detects the virus…
Symptoms are different and individual for each patient with myocarditis. Most of the first symptoms are preceded by previous infectious disease, mostly of the respiratory system or alimentary canal. Symptoms, which are observed by patient, are mostly “flu-like” symptoms. They can have even unusually quick onset…
Myocarditis is separated into several forms. Classification of the types of myocarditis is adjusting continuously. Commonly is so called by a clinical-pathological classification, which combines observable course of the patient´s disease with the findings on her/his heart muscle…
