Acute eosinophilic myocarditis in a young woman

The first stage of eosinophilic myocarditis is called the necrotizing phase . This stage of eosinophilic myocarditis of unknown cause is often fulminan t and rapidly fatal, occurring predominantly in males. Here, we report a ca se of eosinophilic myocarditis in the acute necrotizing phase occurred with out known cause in a 23-year-old Japanese female. Severe diffuse hypokinesi s of the left ventricular wall motion (ejection fraction 19.3%), significan t concentric edematous thickening of the left ventricular wall (20.1 mm in diastole) and a moderate amount of pericardial effusion (10 mm wide echo fr ee space posteriorly) were revealed by echocardiography. Eosinophils were o bserved and degranulated eosinophilic cationic proteins were stained with a ntibody against eosinophilic cationic proteins (EG2) in the myocardial spec imens obtained by myocardial biopsy. In spite of its severity, the disease resolved promptly with steroid therapy.