Clinical Presentation and Outcome in a Contemporary Cohort of Patients with Acute Myocarditis: The Multicenter Lombardy Registry

BACKGROUND—There is controversy regarding outcome of patients with acute myocarditis (AM), and lack of data on how patients admitted with suspected AM are managed. We report characteristics, in-hospital management and long-term outcome of patients with AM based on a retrospective multi-center registry from 19 Italian hospitals. METHODS—A total of 684 patients with suspected AM and recent onset of symptoms (70 years and those older than 50 years without coronary angiography were excluded. The final study population comprised 443 patients (median age 34 years, 19.4% female) with AM diagnosed either by endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) or increased troponin plus edema and late gadolinium enhancement at cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). RESULTS—At presentation, 118 patients (26.6%) had either left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF)