ABSTRACT
Studies of immune-mediated heart disease represent, at the same time, one of the oldest and one of the most current areas of research in clinical immunology and immunopathology. The classical investigations of rheumatic heart disease and Chagas’ disease go back many decades and set the stage for our contemporary concepts of infection-induced autoimmune disease. More recently, virus-induced myocarditis and its sequel, idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, have emerged as major topics of research. The availability of well-defined animal models, especially cardiac myosin-induced myocarditis in rodents, has permitted mechanistic studies of pathogenesis of immunemediated heart disease.
