Is pediatric myocarditis serious?

Written by Chen Si
Pediatrics
Updated on November 07, 2024
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The severity of myocarditis in children needs to be assessed by considering the child's clinical symptoms and corresponding clinical examinations comprehensively. Common clinical symptoms include chest tightness, fatigue, shortness of breath, etc. Most children have a history of upper respiratory tract infection before the symptoms appear. It is necessary to conduct routine blood tests, myocardial enzymes, troponin, myocardial antibodies, viral antibodies, electrocardiograms, and other relevant physicochemical examinations to further clarify the condition. Patients with mild symptoms and roughly normal laboratory results can improve on their own with rest. If there are clinical symptoms such as chest tightness, fatigue, shortness of breath, and related physicochemical examinations show abnormal changes, it is necessary to use medication to nourish the myocardium. During treatment, rest is advised, reduce fatigue, maintain emotional stability, and generally, the symptoms can improve within 10 to 15 days. For more severe cases, the treatment period may need to be extended accordingly.

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Written by Di Zhi Yong
Cardiology
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How to relieve myocarditis pain?

If a patient is diagnosed with myocarditis, especially viral myocarditis, and experiences chest pain, some analgesic medications can be used, particularly non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). If the patient has infective endocarditis or other forms of myocarditis, it is not recommended to use pain-relieving medications due to individual differences, as this may exacerbate symptoms and mask the true condition. For general cases of myocarditis, it is sufficient to use some common NSAIDs. However, it is still important to actively treat the primary disease, control the patient's symptoms, and initially use antiviral medications predominantly, which can also alleviate symptoms. Regular echocardiogram reviews to monitor changes are also necessary.

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Written by Zhou Yan
Geriatrics
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Does myocarditis fear tiredness?

Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium. In treating it, reducing the cardiac load is crucial. For patients in the acute phase, rest is the best way to reduce cardiac load and is an important treatment measure for acute myocarditis. If a patient's heart condition, such as chest pain, elevated myocardial enzymes, or troponin, or severe arrhythmias, is present, we often recommend that the patient rest in bed for more than three months. Therefore, patients with myocarditis should avoid exertion and rest appropriately.

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Written by Zhou Yan
Geriatrics
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Obvious symptoms of myocarditis

Myocarditis refers to the inflammatory disease of the myocardium, with viral infection being the most common cause. Therefore, the majority of patients exhibit precursor symptoms of a viral infection one to three weeks before onset, such as fever, general fatigue, muscle soreness, or gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea and vomiting. This may be followed by palpitations, chest discomfort, chest pain, difficulty breathing, edema, and even fainting or sudden death. In the clinical diagnosis of myocarditis, the majority of cases initially present with symptoms of arrhythmias such as palpitations or a racing heart, but a minority may also experience fainting or Adams-Stokes syndrome (also known as cardiogenic cerebral ischemia).

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Written by Xiao Chang Jiang
Cardiology
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What to eat for myocarditis?

For patients who already have myocarditis, what should we feed them? This is a question that confuses many people. In fact, patients with myocarditis should eat high-protein foods, high-vitamin foods, and those that are low in calories or easy to digest, such as a low-salt diet. It is recommended to eat small meals frequently and avoid foods that are spicy, heavily flavored, or irritating. For high-vitamin foods, the main choices include fruits, some vegetables, bean sprouts, kelp, seaweed, and black fungus, all of which are very good options. Low-calorie foods such as cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, job's tears, and papaya are also good choices. High-protein foods include soybeans, peanuts, seaweed, mushrooms, nuts, milk, lean meats, eggs, fish, shrimp, and more. We also recommend easily digestible foods, like millet porridge and noodles, as well as a low-salt diet, recommending a daily salt intake of no more than 3 grams for patients with myocarditis.

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Written by Zhou Yan
Geriatrics
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Does myocarditis cause a fever?

Myocarditis is an inflammatory heart disease, commonly caused by viral infections, with the Coxsackievirus being the most common. Other infections, such as bacterial, fungal, and Rickettsia, can also cause myocarditis. These infectious myocarditis cases generally show preliminary symptoms of infection, such as fever, in the 1 to 3 weeks before the onset of the disease. Fever indicates a high body temperature, which means the same as having a fever. However, there are also non-infectious forms of myocarditis, such as those caused by drugs, radiation, or connective tissue diseases, and these non-infectious types of myocarditis do not always involve a fever.