Myocarditis and inflammatory cardiomyopathy in 2021 – an update

Abstract

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited, distributed under the same license, and used for noncommercial purposes only.

Sex Differences in Incidence, Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes in Children and Young Adults Hospitalized for Clinically Suspected Myocarditis in the Last Ten Years—Data from the MYO-PL Nationwide Database

“…On the other hand, the infectious factor (mainly viruses) is the most often raised reason for the occurrence of myocarditis [ 3 , 15 ]. In our study, the highest incidence of myocarditis in males was observed from November to April when the impact of infectious etiology of myocarditis might be especially expected.…”

“…Myocarditis in children has become an increasingly significant condition over the years. Myocarditis can take various forms, from a mild subclinical course to fulminant acute myocarditis, entailing acute heart failure and being the cause of sudden cardiac death in 4–6% of cases [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. In addition, a number of major complications have been observed, such as dilated cardiomyopathy or clinically significant arrhythmias [ 4 ].…”

“…Several large-scale studies on myocarditis/cardiomyopathy in children have been conducted so far. However, they provide conflicting results due to non-homogenous diagnostic criteria and possible ethnic differences [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 7 , 8 ]. The available data seem to show an increase in the incidence rate of myocarditis in pediatric patients in the last decade [ 2 ].…”

“…However, most data were collected prior to 2016 and require updating. What is more, there is little information regarding the sex- and age-related short- and long-term outcomes, without explanation of the possible rationale behind the differences [ 2 , 3 ]. In addition, only one of the abovementioned studies examined the European population, and thus, there is a particular need for studies from this region [ 7 ].…”

A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy of immunosuppression in biopsy-proven virus-negative myocarditis or inflammatory cardiomyopathy (IMPROVE-MC)

“…Myocarditis is defined as an inflammatory heart disease and is an important cause of dilated cardiomyopathy, acute heart failure, life-threatening arrythmias and sudden death [1][2][3][4][5]. It is estimated to affect thousands of adults and children around the world each year generating serious medical and social problems.…”