ABSTRACT
Inflammation plays an injurious role in a number of diseases or pathologic conditions affecting the myocardium including myocarditis. Myocarditis is most commonly caused by viruses but can also be caused by other infectious agents such as bacteria, fungi, and various parasites, as well as by numerous noninfectious agents such as certain drugs or chemical toxins. 111In antimyosin scintigraphy has been used to visualize active myocardial damage associated with myocardial infarction as well as inflammation. Antimyosin antibody uptake occurs in irreversibly damaged myocytes in which the sarcolemma is disrupted and heavy chain myosin is exposed. Tenascin-C is an extracellular matrix protein, which appears in various pathological states, such as wound healing, cancer invasion, or inflammation. In a murine model of myocarditis, tenascin-C was reported to be expressed in the initial stage before necrosis or inflammatory cell infiltration was histologically apparent.
