Intravenous immune globulin for severe acute myocarditis in children.

We evaluated high-dose (2g/kg) intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) for severe acute myocarditis in 13 children and compared them for survival with 12 children with myocarditis treated with only conventional therapy. Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups. Both groups had poor left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) on admission. The mortality rate was 8% in the IVIG treated children as compared to 46% in controls (P=0.04). Our study supports the use of IVIG in severe acute myocarditis in children.