Clinical Management and Follow-Up of Myocarditis Patients on Immunosuppressive Therapy

Biopsy-proven infection-negative myocarditis may be an isolated autoimmune process or it may occur in the context of systemic immune-mediated diseases. It may resolve spontaneously, relapse or progress to end-stage heart failure with or without concomitant life-threatening arrhythmia, leading to sudden cardiac death. By definition, an autoimmune disease is treated with immunomodulation and/or immunosuppressive treatment (IT). In this chapter we deal with general definition and basic principles of IT, preparatory patient workup (Safety Checklist) in IT candidates with autoimmune acute myocarditis (AM)/dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), traditional and innovative IT regimens in AM/DCM, patient follow-up and therapeutic patient education (TPE) to self-management.