| Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle (myocardium) which may cause acute heart failure in some patients, while in others, can persist chronically and progress to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).
Standard treatment for acute myocarditis is supportive heart failure therapy, and the only treatment approved for DCM is heart transplantation.
Myocarditis may also disguise itself as ischemic, valvular, or hypertensive heart disease.
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The Enteroviruses cause 50% of all U.S. viral myocarditis cases each year but the majority of cases are diagnosed after death (upon autopsy).
The rate of detecting enterovirus RNA in adult heart tissue is >10%. Isolating EV RNA from a children's heart tissue is more successful.
Coxsackie virus B-3 is the most common EV strain that infects the heart muscle.
CVB induced myocarditis is an important cause of death in adults 20-39 years of age.Myocarditis causes degeneration of the heart muscle, which can be fatal, and often goes undetected.
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