Adult heart disease due to the Coxsackie virus group B.

Abstract

Ten adult patients, be-lieved to have heart disease due to Coxsackie B virus showed evidence of myocardial involvment, pericarditis and pericardial pain. In the majority, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate was moderately raised and the white count showed a moderate leucocytosis with a preponder-ance of neutrophil leucocytes. Serological tests implicated Coxsackies B5 in 4 patients, B4 in 3, B2 in 3, and B1 in one. Heart complications of Coxsackie infections are probably fairly common and are not re-stricted to newborn infants. Coxsackie virus infection should be con-sidered in patients with acute myocarditis, idiopathic cardiomyopathy, "murmurless heart disease," and otherwise unexplained cardiographic changes. The exact mechanism of virus-induced heart disease in adults is not known, but some evidence suggests a virus-initiated autoimmune reaction.