Heart muscle inflammation

Definition

Inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) is an inflammation of the heart muscle. It can affect the heart muscle cells, the interstitial spaces (interstitium) and the heart muscle vessels.

Indications

60% of all patients with symptoms of heart muscle inflammation fell ill a few days to a few weeks before with a flu-like infection with the typical symptoms of cough, rhinitis, fever or headache and aching limbs. If these symptoms are followed by symptoms such as shortness of breath, tiredness and low physical resilience, these could be the first signs of an incipient heart muscle inflammation. The weakened heart muscle is no longer able to supply the body with sufficient oxygen.

Although the lungs are working properly, a feeling of breathlessness sets in. Above all, the decreasing ability to work under pressure is often the only sign in early stages of myocarditis. Loss of appetite and weight can also occur and chest pain is possible, although not very common.

Since myocarditis does not appear until a few days after a flu-like infection, the above-mentioned signs should be taken seriously after the patient has been ill. Doing sports during a flu-like infection further increases the risk of myocarditis. Inflammation of the heart muscle is accompanied by very unspecific symptoms and is therefore difficult to detect even for experts without using technical aids for diagnosis.

It is therefore also extremely difficult for a layperson to recognize that he or she is suffering from myocarditis. Indicative symptoms can be fatigue and a performance kink. Very often the symptoms occur during an infection or in the time after it, when one starts to strain oneself again.

The characteristic feature of these complaints is that they do not disappear even after the infection has healed, as the heart muscle inflammation continues for a longer period of time. Cardiac arrhythmias can give a further indication of myocarditis. These are usually best detected in an ECG.

People affected can sometimes also feel so-called palpitations (heart stumbling). Some heart beats suddenly stand out very clearly from the normal heartbeat. Pain in the chest area can also be indicative of heart muscle inflammation.

These pains occur particularly when the pericardium (the pericardium) is affected. Mostly they depend on breathing and are only noticeable when inhaled. Pain is a rather rare symptom of myocarditis, but it can still occur.

Especially when larger parts of the heart are affected and a high proportion of the heart muscles are inflamed, pain can also become noticeable. In many cases, this pain cannot be directly attributed to the heart. The reason is presumed to be that the sensitive (feeling) nerve fibers from the heart arrive in the brain together with those from the back. Thus it can happen that the registered pain is falsely perceived in the back.