title: Coxsackievirus genome in myocardium of patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy.
abstract: Enteroviruses are known as major infectious agents for inflammatory heart diseases such as myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is characterized by replacement of right ventricular myocardium by fatty and fibrous tissue. In about 65% of patients inflammatory infiltrates suggest an inflammatory or infectious etiopathogenesis. To test this hypothesis, we investigated endomyocardial biopsies of patients with ARVC, with myocarditis or DCM, and from patients with non-inflammatory cardiac disorders for the presence of enteroviral genome. Enteroviral RNA with homology to coxsackieviruses type B was detected in 3 of 8 patients with ARVC (37.5%), in 7 of 23 patients with myocarditis or DCM (30.4%), but in none of 5 patient with non-infectious myocardial diseases (p < 0.05 compared to ARVC patients). These results support earlier suggestions that coxsackievirus infection of the myocardium is possibly related to the pathogenesis of ARVC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Grumbach
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heim
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vonhof
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stille-Siegener
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mall
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Gonska
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kreuzer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andreas
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Figulla
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019571:Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia / Q000821:virology*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D029822:Enterovirus B, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid