Prevalence of myocarditis in idiopathic dysrhythmias: role of endomyocardial biopsy and efficacy of steroid therapy.

In order to study the prevalence of myocarditis, EMB was carried out prospectively in 53 consecutive patients with various idiopathic dysrhythmias and efficacy of steroid therapy was evaluated. The patients consisted of 24 males and 29 females with ages ranging between 12 to 80 yrs. Histologic studies revealed myocarditis in 36 per cent. Steroid therapy resulted in good response in 14 of 18 patients (77.8%) with biopsy-proven myocarditis and in 5 of 17 patients (29.4%) with biopsy-negative but with clinically suspected myocarditis. The remaining patients did not have good response to steroid and there was 1 sudden death in each group.