Healing Myocarditis from a Hypertrophied Heart with Multifocal Fibrosis Mimicking Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

We report the case of an 18 year old man who unexpectedly died of healing myocarditis. His heart was hypertrophied with multifocal fibrosis which can be a common histological feature of primary and secondary cardiomyopathy as well as the healing phase of myocarditis. However, the pattern of myocardial fibrosis, inflammation with myonecrosis, sparing of the right ventricular myocardium, and cardiomyocytes features in the remaining areas of the heart were considered as the key elements in determining a diagnosis of myocarditis. This case illustrates that meticulous histologic examination and the analysis of the histologic findings in the hypertrophied heart with multifocal fibrosis can be helpful to make a correct diagnosis.