The typical symptoms

The symptoms of heart muscle inflammation are usually very unspecific and do not prompt patients to see a doctor immediately. Frequently, myocarditis is only noticeable due to reduced resilience and rapidly occurring symptoms of fatigue. Consequence or concomitant symptom of the viral disease are flu-like signs such as exhaustion, tiredness, indisposition.

In addition, the function of the heart is limited, which is reflected in a reduced performance capacity. However, when interviewing affected patients, they very often report colds that occurred in the run-up to the heart muscle inflammation. Patients often suffered from coughs, rhinitis, headaches, aching limbs and fever.

The symptoms of the flu-like infection can also occur at the same time as the symptoms of myocarditis; the infection does not have to be completely over before myocarditis can develop. Accordingly, although an existing cough is only a direct symptom of a flu-like infection, it can indirectly lead to the suspicion of a heart muscle inflammation if there is an additional reduction in performance and shortness of breath during exercise. In addition, many patients with heart muscle inflammation complain of frequent heart rhythm disturbances in the form of noticeable “heart stumbling”.

This can be so pronounced that it causes a coughing sensation. In addition, pain can occur during the course of the disease, which radiates into the arms. The pain usually worsens when lying down and can be intensified by deep breathing and coughing.

Later symptoms of heart muscle inflammation can include loss of appetite and weight. Pain in the limbs or even muscle pain usually occurs even with relatively banal infections and should therefore come as no surprise even in the case of a serious illness such as myocarditis. On the one hand, they are caused by a limited removal of the pathogens from the body.

Since they cannot be removed from the body’s circulation quickly enough by the liver and kidneys, they begin to deposit everywhere and are only eliminated from the body when the health condition improves.Secondly, the body releases so-called inflammation mediators, which on the one hand help it to detect the bacteria or viruses, but which unfortunately also make the body more susceptible to pain. In addition to symptoms such as tiredness, rapid fatigue, sudden performance slumps and palpitations, another trend-setting symptom of existing heart muscle inflammation can be the occurrence of low blood pressure. Low blood pressure is called hypotension by physicians, meaning blood pressure values below 100/60 mm mercury.

The two values consist of a so-called systolic value and a diastolic value. The systolic value is the higher of the two values and occurs during the ejection phase of the heart, the so-called systole. It is a measure of the strength of the heart, or rather the ejection force of the heart with which the heart pumps the blood into the body’s circulation.

The diastolic value is the lower of the two. It occurs during the relaxation phase of the heart as it fills with blood. It is a measure of the elasticity of the vessels.

Inflammation of the heart muscle causes damage to the muscle cells around the heart, so that they can no longer function properly. This results in a weakening of the heart’s performance capacity, which is medically referred to as cardiac insufficiency. In addition, disturbances of the heart rhythm can occur, which can be particularly dangerous.

Due to the weakening of the heart muscle, it can no longer pump the blood into the body’s circulation as effectively and powerfully during the ejection phase. This can manifest itself in low blood pressure, hypotension. Patients suffering from weakness of the heart also suffer from faster fatigue and reduced performance.

Myocarditis is often caused by the spread of a flu-like infection. Patients often report coughing, rhinitis, headache, aching limbs and fever. The heart muscle inflammation itself does not necessarily manifest itself through typical signs of infection, but rather through unspecific symptoms such as reduced resilience, exhaustion and shortness of breath, which occur even at low physical stress levels.

Fever is a symptom in the context of inflammatory diseases, which indicates the reaction of the organism to pathogens/foreign bodies or other disturbing factors. Accordingly, fever can also occur as a symptom in the context of heart muscle inflammation. However, it is by no means a mandatory prerequisite for the diagnosis of myocarditis.

Since the disease is in many cases very asymptomatic, fever is not one of the most common symptoms of myocarditis. However, if it does occur, physical exertion should be avoided at all costs. In general, sports activities during an infection (whether with or without fever) should be avoided to minimize the risk of subsequent myocarditis.

As soon as symptoms that could be related to heart muscle inflammation are observed during/after a flu-like infection, a doctor should be consulted as soon as possible. The course and symptoms of the disease can vary greatly from patient to patient, so there are no fixed typical symptoms. The majority of patients initially do not notice anything at all about the disease.

If a fever suddenly reappears following a flu-like infection, especially in connection with a performance slump, shortness of breath and/or heart stumbling, this should be a reason for a visit to a doctor. This also applies to high fever during an infection with additional unusual listlessness, shortness of breath and heart rhythm disturbances. In principle, a person sweats mainly for the purpose of heat regulation.

Through the mechanism of sweating, the body can release excess heat to the environment. This enables the person to maintain a constant body temperature. In addition to regulating body temperature, sweating can be the result of a stress reaction of the body.

When the body is under stress, the so-called sympathetic nervous system, which is part of the autonomic nervous system, plays an important role. This sympathetic nervous system controls the sweat glands and thus its activation leads to sweating. Sweating as a result of stress also occurs in many diseases.

For example, shortness of breath or severe chest pain in the context of a heart attack or even myocarditis can lead to a stress reaction of the body, which can cause severe sweating. In contrast to heat release, where patients sweat and are warm, patients who sweat due to a stress reaction are characterized by cool and moist skin.Another reason that can lead to sweating in the context of myocarditis is myocardial inflammation. For example, if myocarditis is caused by a bacterial or viral infection, the body’s response to an infection is often a fever and sweating.

Back pain is a very unspecific symptom of myocarditis. Similar to a heart attack, they can, but do not necessarily have to, occur. The pain usually seems to radiate into the back or even have its origin here.

However, by palpation and gentle tapping of the spinal column, as well as a circular movement of the spinal column, it can be determined that the pain is neither bony nor muscular in origin, but must originate elsewhere than the spinal column. Swelling of the liver and spleen can occur due to insufficient pumping of the heart during myocarditis. The blood backs up in the body, so to speak, because the heart cannot pump as much blood back into the body as the body makes available to the heart.

Since there are blood vessels from the liver and spleen that supply the blood to the heart, if the pumping capacity is insufficient, there is a backlog in these two organs in addition to the formation of edema. The magnification can be determined by palpation under the right and left costal arch or relatively easily with the aid of an ultrasound device. Similar to myocardial infarction, acute myocarditis often causes nausea and vomiting. It is not yet clear exactly why vomiting occurs, but these two symptoms can be treated quite well with medication.