Ventricular aneurysms and ventricular arrhythmias complicating Coxsackie virus B1 myocarditis of Syrian golden hamsters

We inoculated Coxsackie virus B1 (CVB1) intraperitoneally into 36 2-week-old Syrian golden hamsters. Serial ECGs were recorded from 10 hamsters which survived the acute and electrocardiographically manifest myocarditis. In a mean 17.8 week (range 9 to 31 weeks) follow-up period, chronic ventricular premature contractions (VPC) followed the acute ECG changes in three of the animals. VPC were recorded in a uniform contour in a hamsters, which had a ventricular aneurysm and were of two kinds of contour in the other two hamsters, each of which had two ventricular aneurysms. No VPC was recorded from the other seven hamsters, which had no aneurysms in the heart. None of the inoculated animals died during the follow-up period, irrespective of the existence of ventricular aneurysm, after surviving the first 2 weeks post-infection. The results demonstrate a close relationship between chronic VPC of uniform contours following CVB1 myocarditis and the formation of ventricular aneurysms in Syrian golden hamsters. The hamsters were able to live for a considerably long period with the aneurysms. Ventricular aneurysms following CVB1 myocarditis in Syrian golden hamsters may be an experimental model of human ventricular aneurysms of unknown etiology.