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Arterial Structure and Function Following Viral Myocarditis

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Abstract

Acute viral myocarditis is an uncommon inflammatory disease of the myocardium. Little is known about the long-term cardiovascular risk for individuals who have recovered from the acute illness. We compared intermediate vascular phenotypes relating to arterial structure (aortic and carotid intima-media thickness) and function (pulse wave velocity, carotid arterial distensibility and compliance) in 15 participants, a median of 9.1 years after an episode of acute viral myocarditis, and 45 control participants. Following adjustment for age, sex and triglycerides, there were no differences in mean and maximum carotid and aortic intima-media thickness, pulse wave velocity, carotid artery distensibility and compliance between viral myocarditis participants and controls. In conclusion, we found no evidence of changes in intermediate vascular phenotypes indicative of increased cardiovascular risk in individuals who had fully recovered from viral myocarditis.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Jane Koleff, Megan Kaegi and Greta Goldsmith for their technical expertise and assistance with assessments. We thank all study participants and their families.

Funding

Katherine YH Chen holds an Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship from The University of Melbourne and a Postgraduate Health Research Scholarship from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. David P Burgner holds a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellowship and an honorary National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship. Research at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute is supported by the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program. The sponsors had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation, or in the writing of this manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. David P. Burgner and Katherine Y. H. Chen are joint senior authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Asha Jois, Nigel Curtis, Michael Cheung & Katherine Y. H. Chen

  2. Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia

    Diana Zannino, Nigel Curtis, Michael Cheung, David P. Burgner & Katherine Y. H. Chen

  3. Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Nigel Curtis, David P. Burgner & Katherine Y. H. Chen

  4. Department of Paediatrics, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    David P. Burgner

Authors
  1. Asha Jois
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  2. Diana Zannino
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  3. Nigel Curtis
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  4. Michael Cheung
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  5. David P. Burgner
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  6. Katherine Y. H. Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David P. Burgner.

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Conflict of Interest

Asha Jois and Diana Zannino, Nigel Curtis, Michael Cheung, David Burgner, and Katherine Chen declare that they have no conflict of interest. Nigel Curtis has received research grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia (NHMRC) (Grant No. APP1064408). David Burgner has received research grants from the NHMRC (Grant No. APP1064629). Katherine Chen holds an Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship from The University of Melbourne, and a Postgraduate Health Research Scholarship from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Human Research Ethics Committees of Monash Medical Centre, Australia, and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Australia, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants and/or their parent or primary caregiver included in the study.

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Jois, A., Zannino, D., Curtis, N. et al. Arterial Structure and Function Following Viral Myocarditis. Pediatr Cardiol 40, 133–137 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-018-1969-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-018-1969-6

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