Myocarditis

Myocarditis is defined clinically as inflammation of the heart muscle. First introduced into the medical literature at the beginning of the 19th century, the term “myocarditis” was initially used to describe diseases of the heart muscle not associated with valvular abnormalities.1 With the recognition of the importance of coronary-artery occlusion as a cause of heart-muscle disease at the beginning of the 20th century, the term was largely discarded. In the second half of the 20th century, a constellation of clinical observations renewed interest in inflammation of the heart muscle: myocarditis was recognized in a surprisingly large number of postmortem studies . . .