Morphological considerations of peri- and myocarditis

In medicine, and thus in pathology, there are areas/topics of fashion and t hey shift from time to time. Pericardial diseases are not fashionable. Myoc arditis is, and has been for a long time. Due to new ways of retrieving tis sue samples from the pericardium the modern diagnostic tools such as immuno histochemistry and molecular pathology can be applied in this context as th ey have been in myocarditis for a long period. The diagnosis of inflammatio n rests on many other findings than morphological alterations and it is ind eed questionable if inflammation is solely a morphological diagnosis. The m ethodologies of pathology can be improved and used in a better and more pur poseful way even under routine conditions. It is concluded that morphology is still mandatory to make a final diagnosis of peri- and myocarditis.