Myocarditis symptoms, diagnosis and treatment

What is Myocarditis :

The core is formed by an outer shell (pericardium), a muscular layer (myocardium) and an inner wrapper (endocardium). Myocarditis is an inflammation of the myocardium, or heart muscle. It is a rare disease.

How does it occur ?

The myocardium is pump function, contraction of the heart which can be weakened when it is ignited by myocarditis. Myocarditis can have an acute (short term) or chronic (long-term).

There are numerous causes of myocarditis. Inflammation is a response of the myocardium against a disease or aggression. This inflammation can be caused by infection (viruses, bacteria, fungi), drugs, alcohol, physical agents such as radiation or appear in the context of a systemic disease (eneralized) or autoimmune like lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis.

Myocarditis Symptoms

The disease can have a benign course with complete recovery of the heart or heart damage may be permanent sequelae leaving. Sometimes you can also inflame the outer casing also leading to pericarditis.

The symptoms can be quite varied. In mild cases the patient may be asymptomatic. In others, it is often the appearance of a previous frame similar to the flu with fever, fatigue and chest pain.

More severe symptoms occur as cardiac arrhythmias, chest pain similar to a heart attack and heart failure, a result of heart damage occurred and the failure of the pump function of the heart.

Myocarditis Diagnosis

Diagnosis can be difficult. It is done with the clinical history and physical examination along with a series of additional tests which may include:

• Analytics for signs of inflammation and blood cultures in cases of infectious myocarditis.
• Chest X-rays allow us to see the size of the heart and if there are complications.
• The echocardiogram shows the heart’s structure and function.
• The show electrocardiogram heart rhythm abnormalities.
• The biopsiaendomiocardicia involves taking a sample of heart muscle to see the degree of inflammation and detect any infection.

Myocarditis Treatment

If the disease has a benign resolution is often spontaneous, requiring only rest, analgesics and anti-inflammatory medications.

They should try, where possible, the underlying disease, eg with antibiotics if a bacterial infection.

In case of complications such as arrhythmias or heart failure will require specific drugs such as diuretics or antiarrhythmic.

Physical exercise is contraindicated until resolution of the problem.

If the disease causes serious sequelae with heart damage may require a heart transplant.

Myocarditis Precautions

There are no preventive measures to avoid it.