Enteroviruses and myocarditis.

Myocarditis causes distinctive histological changes of the myocardium and is most commonly caused by enterovirus infection. Enterovirus RNA has been detected in tissue samples obtained from patients with myocarditis by endomyocardial biopsy. Similar findings in dilated cardiomyopathy support the hypothesis that it results from myocarditis in some cases and that enterovirus infection plays a pathogenetic role in the disease process.