Immunosuppressive Therapy for Myocarditis

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Abstract
Mason and colleagues report the results of a clinical trial of immunosuppressive therapy for myocarditis (Aug. 3 issue).1 Ventricular function improved to the same extent among the patients randomly assigned to receive conventional therapy plus immunosuppressive treatment as among those who received conventional therapy alone. McKenna and Davies, in an accompanying editorial, observe that many patients with dilated cardiomyopathy have immunohistochemical evidence of inflammation, even though they may not meet the Dallas criteria for the histologic diagnosis of myocarditis, and the authors allude to the question of a potential role for immunosuppression in the treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy.2