Traumatic “Myocarditis” or “Myocarditis” in Trauma
Although it is reasonable to expect a high morbidity from focal " myocarditis," the scarcity of patiiological data points to an unsatisfactory and usually inadequate histological examination of autopsy material.
Abstract
PATCHY myocardial changes may occur as a result of direct injury to the chest and also as a delayed complication in trauma to areas such as Üie skull, where the trauma is quite unrelated to direct cardiac injiuy. In many instances the histopathological changes seen in the heart, both as a direct or indirect com plication of traimia, are identical to those seen in focal "myocardi t i s" of non-traumatic aetiology. The myocardial changes resulting from traiuna may be reversible if recognised early in the course of injury but are often also an important contributory factor in many traumatic deaths (Eichbaum 1964, Lasky 1966, Agar 1966, Plueckhahn 1966, Lasky, Siegel and Nahum 1968). The condition of "myocardi t i s" in general covers a broad and ill-defined group of condi tions which Simpson (1967) reviewed tmder the heading of "Cardiomyopathies." A more comprehensive study of this condition was made by Hudson (1965). Neither of these reviews considers the myocardial changes related to direct and indirect traiuna. Kline, KUne and Saphir (1963) in a com prehensive survey of 4,782 autopsies found 262 examples of focal "myocardi t i s" in a wide range of age groups. The condition is not restricted to the younger age groups. Although it is reasonable to expect a high morbidity from focal " myocarditis," the scarcity of patiiological data points to an unsatisfactory and usually inadequate histological examination of autopsy material. In many instances death is " sudden " and in the majority of cases myo cardial involvement is not suspected clinically ^edeschi and Stevenson 1951). Owing to tiie lack of macroscopic evidence and to its patchy