Risk Factors for Patients Developing a Fulminant Course With Acute Myocarditis

Background A fulminant course can be difficult to predict at the onset of acute myocarditis, so the aim of the present study was to identify the predictive clinical symptoms/signs or laboratory findings. Methods and Results Thirty-nine patients with acute lymphocytic myocarditis, excluding 8 who manifested shock at admission, were studied. The fulminant group was defined as 12 patients who developed shock after admission, requiring intraaortic balloon pumping or percutaneous cardiopulmonary support, and the non-fulminant group comprised the 27 patients without shock. Various parameters at admission were compared between the 2 groups, together with multiple logistic regression analysis, excluding 6 patients with partially missing values. In the fulminant group, C-reactive protein (7.0±7.0 vs 2.3±2.2 mg/dl, p