COXSACKIEVIRUS GENOME IN MYOCARDIUM OF PATIENTS WITH ARRHYTHMOGENIC RIGHT-VENTRICULAR DYSPLASIA CARDIOMYOPATHY/

Enteroviruses are known as major infectious agents for inflammatory he art diseases such as myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Arr hythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is chara cterized by replacement of right ventricular myocardium by fatty and f ibrous tissue. In about 65% of patients inflammatory infiltrates sugge st an inflammatory or infectious etiopathogenesis. To test this hypoth esis, we investigated endomyocardial biopsies of patients with ARVC, w ith myocarditis or DCM, and from patients with non-inflammatory cardia c disorders for the presence of enteroviral genome, Enteroviral RNA wi th 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 sugg estions that coxsackievirus infection of the myocardium is possibly re lated to the pathogenesis of ARVC.