Recognition of an additional mechanism leading to myocardial abnormalities

A growing body of evidence explicitly suggests the significant role of inflammatory processes in the develop-ment and progressive deterioration of vascular diseases and cardiomyopathies. In recent years, a large variety of infections have been reported to be associated with the development of cardiomyopathy, the pathogenic factors include rickets, bacteria, protozoa and other parasites, and also, at least 17 viruses. Thanks to the latest de-velopment of molecular biology techniques, quite a num-ber of virus genomes have been identified in heart tissues taken from biopsies and/or autopsies. Thus, they have provided further and stronger evidence to support the pathogenic linkage between viral infections and myocardial dysfunction. Currently, there is a consensus that virus-es are one of the important causes of myocarditis at least in certain areas of the world, North America and Eu-rope .