Does contemporary combined immunosuppression improve clinical remission in patients with giant-cell myocarditis?
Combined immunosuppression allows most giant-cell myocarditis patients to avoid severe heart failure and transplantation, though ventricular arrhythmia risk persists.
Repeat endomyocardial biopsies are frequently needed to diagnose giant-cell myocarditis. On contemporary immunosuppession, two thirds of patients reach a partial clinical remission characterized by freedom from severe heart failure and need of transplantation but continuing proneness to ventricular tachyarrhythmias.
Kandolin et al. (Wed,) studied this question.