[Dilated cardiomyopathy resulting from asymptomatic and subclinical myocarditis].

The paper presents data on 10 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) or chronic myocarditis with fatal outcomes in whom heart failure was preceded by abnormal ECG changes originally regarded as the manifestations of coronary heart disease or small myocardial infarction. The clinical course of the disease and morphological studies suggest that the ECG changes were associated with pre-existing asymptomatic viral myocarditis.