Table 1.
Baseline Characteristics of the Study Population
| Healthy controls (n = 20) | Acute viral myocarditis (n = 20) | IIM with inflammatory myocarditis (n = 20) | p - value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, years | 47 ± 12 | 35 ± 13* | 54 ± 18 | < 0.001 | |
| Male / Female | 9 / 11 | 16 / 4* | 9 / 11 | 0.048 | |
| BMI, kg/m2 | 25 ± 4 | 24 ± 6 | 22 ± 3 | 0.286 | |
| Heart failure | 0 (0%) | 2 (10%) | 1 (5%) | > 0.999 | |
| Atrial fibrillation or AV block | 0 (0%) | 4 (20%) | 5 (25%)* | 0.725 | |
| Significant valvulopathy | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | ||
| Dyspnea | 0 (0%) | 2 (10%) | 6 (30%)* | 0.235 | |
| Chest pain | 0 (0%) | 19 (95%)* | 2 (10%) | < 0.001 | |
| Dysphagia | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 2 (10%) | 0.487 | |
| Myalgia | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 7 (35%)* | 0.008 | |
| Muscle weakness | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 19 (95%)* | < 0.001 | |
| Arterial hypertension | 0 (0%) | 3 (15%) | 3 (15%) | ||
| Dyslipidemia | 0 (0%) | 2 (10%) | 5 (25%) | 0.408 | |
| Diabetes | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 2 (10%) | 0.487 | |
| Immunosuppressive treatment | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 20 (100%)* | < 0.001 | |
| Duration of disease, months | 0 ± 0 | 0.17 ± 0.13 | 57 ± 53 | 0.001 | |
| NT-proBNP, pg/ml | N/A | 1636 ± 3800 | 699 ± 1226 | 0.077 | |
| Troponin T, ng/ml | N/A | 647 ± 610 | 583 ± 651 | 0.507 | |
| CPK, IU/l | N/A | 256 ± 197 | 2438 ± 3547 | 0.001 | |
| Hematocrit, % | 42 ± 3 | 38 ± 5* | 40 ± 3 | 0.554 | |
| Creatinine, μmol/l | 82 ± 14 | 86 ± 53 | 50 ± 20* | < 0.001 | |
| CRP mg/l | 1.3 ± 1.3 | 36 ± 54* | 15 ± 25* | 0.093 |
Values are mean ± SD or n (%). *p < .05 compared to controls, p-values of the direct comparison between acute viral myocarditis and IIM myocarditis are shown in the last column, using Mann-Whitney U or Fisher’s exact test, as appropriate
AV atrio-ventricular, IIM idiopathic inflammatory myopathy, BMI body-mass-index, CPK creatine phosphokinase, CRP c-reactive protein, NT-proBNP N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide