Infection and inflammation in the cardiovascular system
Authors: F Calabrese
Journal: Cardiovascular Research (2003)

. Infection and inflammation in the cardiovascularendomyocardial bioptome in 1962, myocarditis was diagsystem nosed during life often presumptive and not always correct, mainly in young patients with heart failure pre-Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures ceded by a febrile illness.Most cases were diagnosed as left in the world.late as at autopsy.Confusion was further heightened by lack of agreement among clinicians regarding indications Hans Zinsser , Rats, Lice and History for endomyocardial biopsy as well as interpretation of Infection and inflammation of the cardiovascular system biopsy findings.Histologic criteria for myocarditis are still are a frequent cause of cardiac and / or vascular disease, a matter of debate among pathologists, and it has become which represents an enormous clinical burden in adult now increasingly apparent that more attention should be medicine.Major advances have now occurred in under-given to serologic, molecular and immunologic factors in standing cellular and molecular bases of a wide variety of order to fully characterize the disease.inflammatory cardiovascular diseases.Some of these According to the 1995 World Health Organization (myocarditis) have been recognized as inflammatory dis-(WHO) / International Society and Federation of Cardioloease for a long time.Of others (atherosclerosis), the gy Task Force on the Definition and Classification of inflammatory nature of disease and possible involvement Cardiomyopathy [1], inflammatory cardiomyopathy is now of bacterial antigens therein has emerged only recently.In included as a subtype of specific cardiomyopathies, defined both cases however, new insights in inflammatory mecha-as myocarditis in association with cardiac dysfunction.nisms will have great impact on clinical thinking and Infectious, autoimmune, and idiopathic forms of inflammamanagement.Therefore, Cardiovascular Research has tory heart disease have been recognized.There is reasondecided to devote a spotlight issue to this topic.This issue able clinical and experimental evidence that dilated carcontains 10 review articles that provide state-of-the-art diomyopathy may occur as a late consequence of myocarknowledge and, in addition, 14 original papers with novel ditis, thus the two entities may very well represent two data on the intriguing relationship between infection / in-stages of the same disease.However, dilated carflammation and cardiovascular disease.diomyopathy represents the end stage of a variety of insults to the myocardium, of which indeed some, but certainly not all evoke an inflammatory response. . Inflammation and infection in the myocardiumThere are a large number of agents, infectious and non-infectious, that can cause myocarditis.Since Gore and Historically, myocarditis has been the cause of a great Saphir demonstrated in 1947 that rheumatic and deal of clinical and pathologic confusion and debate.diphtheritic myocarditis each constituted only 10% of a Though the term myocarditis goes back to the 1800s, it series of 1402 cases of myocarditis, increasing attention was only in 1941 that histologic myocarditis was discerned has been paid to other forms of myocarditis.These forms from ischemic heart disease.Until the introduction of the comprise viral myocarditis, e.g. by enteroviruses, adenoviruses or herpes viruses.During the past few years, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has fast become the