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Myocardial biopsies differentiate between myocyte- and endothelial-targeted myocarditis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2012

Dietmar Schranz*
Affiliation:
Department of Paediatric CardiologyJustus-Liebig UniversityGiessen, Germany
Ina Michel-Behnke
Affiliation:
Department of Paediatric CardiologyMedical University of ViennaVienna, Austria
*
Correspondence to: Dr Dietmar Schranz, Department of Paediatric Cardiology, Justus-Liebig University, Feulgenstrasse 12, 35385 Giessen, Germany; E-mail: dietmar.schranz@paediat.med.uni-giessen.de
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Abstract

Type
Letter to the Editor
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

We appreciated the review of the current literature to paediatric myocarditis by Lindsay J. May et alReference May, Patton and Fruitman 1 (June 2011 issue). Regarding the evolving approach, we would like to underline the meaning of myocardial biopsies even in terms of the shift from coxsackievirus B to adenovirus and, in the past 5 years, to parvovirus B19.Reference Cooper 2 In this context, we missed the pathogenetic features of inflammatory cardiomyopathy in terms of the fundamental difference between a coxsackievirus myocarditis and parvovirus B19 vasculitis-dependent cardiomyopathy, knowing well that endothelial cells but not cardiac myocytes are the Parvo B19-specific target cells in patients with Parvo B19-associated myocarditis.Reference Klingel, Sauter and Bock 3 , Reference Duechting, Tschöpe and Kaiser 4 Taking this novel pathogenetic knowledge into account, the injury process of inflammatory cardiomyopathy is newly lightened. The question arises as to whether any newly diagnosed myocarditis-dependent cardiomyopathy really has a pathogenesis, as reviewed by the authors, or is it time to use all current diagnostic tools to differentiate between a primary cardiac myopathy in which the myocytes are the primary targets and a vascular disease with secondary ischaemic cardiac myocytes damage? Such a differentiation makes sense not only in consideration of the prognostic difference between the causal viral entities, but also with respect to the current efficacy of gamma-globulin therapy and in particular to novel therapeutic strategies such as cardiac stem cell therapy.Reference Strauer, Brehm and Schannwell 5

References

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