Giant cell myocarditis as a manifestation of drug hypersensitivity

Adverse drug effects on the myocardium are often classified into toxic and hypersensitivity forms of myocarditis, each with distinct histologic findin gs. In contrast, giant cell myocarditis (GCM) is generally not associated w ith adverse drug reactions and has unique histopathologic features. We repo rt four cases of adverse drug reactions in which the histologic findings we re characteristic of GCM. The clinical recognition that GCM may be a manife station of an adverse drug reaction is important, since the prognosis and t reatment of this entity may be different from that of other forms of myocar ditis. Cardiovasc Pathol 2000;9:287-291 (C) 2000 by Elsevier Science Inc.