Key result
Myocarditis and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy represent a spectrum of immune-mediated cardiac diseases, and understanding their immunopathogenic mechanisms may guide future therapies.
Understanding the immunopathogenic mechanisms of myocarditis could lead to new therapies for dilated cardiomyopathy.
Highlights potential immune overlap in myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy; leaves open mechanism-guided therapy trials.
The term myocarditis represents a spectrum of nonischemic inflammatory diseases of the myocardium. Both the acceptance of a morphologic myocarditis classification and the documentation by sensitive molecular techniques that cardiotropic viruses are associated with myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy have led to new debates regarding the pathogenic mechanisms responsible for the development of cardiac dysfunction in myocarditis. With increasing virologic and immunologic data suggesting that many cases of myocarditis and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy are part of a spectrum of immune-mediated cardiac disease, elucidating basic immunopathogenic mechanisms of myocarditis may have significant impact on developing therapies for dilated cardiomyopathy.
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Herskowitz et al. (1992) conducted a review in Myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy. Myocarditis and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy represent a spectrum of immune-mediated cardiac diseases, and understanding their immunopathogenic mechanisms may guide future therapies.
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