Giant cell myocarditis: a case report and review of the literature

• Main Authors: Spence N, Niehaus K, Macias L, Cox B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Arizona Thoracic Society 2014-04-01
• Series: Southwest Journal of Pulmonary and Critical Care
• Subjects: giant cell myocarditis; Hispanic; heart failure; cardiac magnetic resonance imaging; pathology; immunosuppression; treatment; endomyocardial biopsy; complete heart block; myocardiitis
• Online Access: http://www.swjpcc.com/pulmonary/2014/4/30/giant-cell-myocarditis-a-case-report-and-review-of-the-liter.html?SSScrollPosition=290

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. First described by Saltykow in 1905 (1), Giant cell myocarditis (GCM) is a rare but highly lethal disease. Until the 1980s the diagnosis of GCM was determined at autopsy (2). It often affects young patients (mean age of 42.6 + 12.7 years), and appears to occur in men and women equally. The occurrence of GCM in minority patients has not been previously described (3). The most common presenting symptom is heart failure (75%), though ventricular tachycardia (14%), chest pain with ECG findings of acute myocardial infarction (6%) and complete heart block (5%) may also occur. Treatment often involves an immunosuppressive regimen as a bridge to heart transplantation. The prevalence of GCM is known primarily from autopsy studies (i.e., 0.051% in India, 0.007% in England, and 0.023% in Japan) (4-6). In the largest GCM observational study yet published, the rate of death or cardiac transplantation was 89 percent, with a median ...