Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle (myocardium). The inflammation can reduce the heart's ability to pump blood. Myocarditis can cause chest pain, shortness of breath, and rapid or irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias).
If you have chest pain or severe shortness of breath, or your symptoms get worse, call 9-1-1 or seek medical help right away. The symptoms of heart inflammation can happen suddenly or progress slowly.
Heart inflammation happens after you have an injury or infection in your heart. This rare condition can be mild, serious or in between the two extremes. Mild cases don't need treatment, and medication helps with all three types of heart inflammation. Recovery can take many weeks.
Increase activity: Exercising for as little as 20 minutes a day can decrease inflammation. You don't have to do an intense sweat session: Moderate workouts, such as fast walking, are effective. Eat a heart-healthy diet: Processed and fast foods produce inflammation.
An ECG can show inflammation, as well as localize the area of the heart that is inflamed. In the setting of heart muscle inflammation, an ECG commonly shows extra beats (extrasystole) and/or an accelerated heartbeat.
The symptoms of myocarditis are not specific to the disease and are similar to symptoms of more common heart disorders. A sensation of tightness or squeezing in the chest that is present with rest and with exertion is common.
Many people may exhibit no noticeable signs of myocarditis. You may feel sick or have some general viral symptoms but you may not know that your heart is being affected.
Some people have an enlarged heart because of temporary factors, such as pregnancy or an infection. In these cases, your heart will return to its usual size after treatment.
Common causes include viral or bacterial infections and medical conditions such as autoimmune diseases. Heart inflammation can happen suddenly or progress slowly and may have severe symptoms or almost no symptoms. You may have different symptoms depending on the type and how serious the heart inflammation is.
Stress and Heart Disease: What's the Link? Stress can increase inflammation in your body, which in turn is linked to factors that can harm your heart, such as high blood pressure and lower “good” HDL cholesterol, Blaha says.
People with myocarditis often feel fatigued, short of breath, chest pain or the sensation of their heart racing (palpitations). They may feel these symptoms gradually over time, or their symptoms may happen very quickly. People with myocarditis in more advanced stages may show symptoms of heart failure.
Ongoing inflammation can cause many serious health problems. When it affects your heart muscle, it's called myocarditis. Myocarditis can affect small or large sections of the heart muscle. Severe cases may cause abnormal heart rhythms or make it harder for the heart to pump blood.
Background. Acute myocarditis represents a challenging diagnosis as there is no pathognomonic clinical presentation. In patients with myocarditis, electrocardiogram (ECG) can display a variety of non-specific abnormalities. Nevertheless, ECG is widely used as an initial screening tool for myocarditis.
What does myocarditis chest pain feel like? It's common to feel a sensation of tightness or squeezing in the chest, either when at rest or when active. It could also happen if you're lying down. You may have chest pain that feels sharp or stabbing, and chest pain/discomfort may spread to other parts of your body.
Untreated, myocarditis can damage the heart muscle so that it can't pump blood well. In severe cases, myocarditis-related heart failure may require a ventricular assist device or a heart transplant. Heart attack or stroke.
When respiratory symptoms are prominent, myocarditis may be misdiagnosed as pneumonia, bronchiolitis, or asthma. Myocarditis may present like congestive heart failure due to other causes— including congenital malformations of the heart, valvular disease, cardiac ischemia, and Kawasaki disease.
Acute myocarditis describes relatively recent or fast onset of myocarditis, and is usually caused by a viral infection. Acute myocarditis can develop suddenly, and symptoms may resolve rapidly as well.
Chest pain due to pericarditis is usually made worse by movement of the chest such as coughing, breathing, or swallowing food. Pain may be relieved by sitting up and leaning forward. People with infectious myocarditis may have symptoms of the infection, such as fever and muscle aches before myocarditis develops.
What are myocarditis and pericarditis? Myocarditis and pericarditis are inflammatory conditions that affect the heart. Myocarditis is inflammation of the myocardium, which is the heart muscle. Pericarditis is inflammation of the pericardium, the sac-like tissue layer that surrounds the heart.
Blood tests
Cardiac troponins or creatine kinase-MB are blood markers that increase when there is damage to your heart. Since there are no specific blood tests for myocarditis, these markers are useful to show injury to the heart muscle.
The extent of the heart that is inflamed and the severity of the inflammation determine the number of symptoms. Myocarditis comes in 2 forms: acute (a sudden presentation that is typically more dramatic) and chronic (a presentation where the symptoms may come and go, but resolve very slowly or not at all).
Pericarditis usually develops suddenly and may last from weeks up to several months. The condition usually clears up after three months, but sometimes attacks can come and go for years. Sometimes there is extra fluid in the space between the pericardial layers, which is called pericardial effusion.
“Myocarditis is irreversible. Once the heart muscle is damaged, it cannot be repaired by the body,” states one widely shared Facebook post. “Myocarditis has a 20% fatality rate after 2 years and a 50% fatality rate after 5 years,” it continues.
The difference is that, when extra heartbeats in the upper and lower chambers are the cause of abnormal rhythm, symptoms may feel like an initial skip or hard thumping beat followed by a racing heart. When anxiety is the trigger, heart rate typically increases steadily rather than suddenly.