Morphological and immunogistochemical characteristics of myocardial damage in miastenia

Abstract

The article presents a rare clinical case of a 45-year-old patient with generalized myasthenia with damages to the muscular apparatus of the extremities and the heart. A special feature of the case was myocardial damage evident as alterative-productive interstitial myocarditis with a peculiar immune phenotype of cell infiltrate, Cd3+, Cd4+, Cd8–, Cd68+. Furthermore, Cd68-expressing cells were presented by large macrophages with cytoplasmic granulation, which surrounded damaged cardiomyocytes. Around sites of cardiomyocyte alteration there were manifestations of neoangiogenesis with signs of Cd34 protein expression in thin-wall, capillary type blood vessels. These morphological and immunohistochemical changes in the myocardium supplement the concept of myasthenia morphogenesis.