Coxsackie B5 myopericarditis in a young adult: Clinical course and endomyocardial biopsy findings

Abstract

An 18-year-old student with recent gastrointestinal symptoms was found to have Stokes-Adams syndrome. A transvenous pacemaker was successfully inserted with clinical improvement. Subsequent viral titer studies and serum enzyme changes supported the diagnosis of Coxsackie B5 myopericarditis. The first cardiac catheterization and endomyocardial biopsy of the right ventricle were performed on the 14th hospital day; the former revealed no hemodynamic abnormalities, but the latter showed marked necrosis of the myofibers, disarray of the remaining ones, mononuclear cell infiltration and the appearance of fibroblasts with fine collagen fiber proliferation in the interstitium. A second biopsy of both ventricles, carried out on the 46th hospital day, showed no necrosis of the myofibers or inflammatory cell infiltration but increasing collagen fiber proliferation in the linterstitium and disarray of the surviving myofibers. These pathological findings suggest the healing process of the myopericarditis. To the best of our knowledge, reports of viral myopericarditis with serial endomyocardial biopsies have been few. © 1983, The Japanese Circulation Society. All rights reserved.