Myocarditis and inflammatory cardiomyopathy — clinical management, epidemiology and prognosis -- Pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of pericarditis -- Epidemiology and Prognosis of Myocarditis and dilated Cardiomyopathy: Predictive Value of Clinical Parameters and Biopsy Findings -- Animal models of myocarditis — autoimmunity and viral infection; therapeutic interventions -- Autoimmune Murine Myocarditis and Immunomodulatory Interventions -- Coxsackievirus-induced murine myocarditis and immunomodulatory interventions -- Myocardial Proteases and Matrix Remodeling in Acute Myocarditis and Inflammatory Cardiomyopathy -- Alterations of the immune system in human viral and inflammatory cardiomyopathy -- Molecular genetics of cardiomyopathies and myocarditis -- Pathogenic relevance of autoantibodies in dilated cardiomyopathy -- The role of cytokines in inflammation-induced cardiomyopathy: Pathogenesis and therapeutic implications -- Diagnosis of inflammatory and viral cardiomyopathy -- Histology and immunohistology of myocarditis -- Immunohistological diagnosis of inflammatory cardiomyopathy and diagnosis of cardiotropic viral infections -- Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging: A non-invasive approach for the detection of myocardial inflammation — Potentials and limitations -- Treatment strategies in inflammatory cardiomyopathy patients -- Clinical management of acute myocarditis and cardiomyopathy -- Immunosuppressive treatment of inflammatory cardiomyopathy patients -- Antiviral interferon-? treatment in patients with chronic viral cardiomyopathy -- Immunoadsorption in dilated cardiomyopathy patients.

Cardiomyopathy is one of the most frequent causes of heart failure, and a leading entity of cardiac transplantation in the era of modern heart failure regimens. This volume focuses on major advances in inflammatory cardiomyopathy (DCMi) during the past 10 years. The book is divided up into the following sections: 1. Myocarditis and inflammatory cardiomyopathy – clinical management, epidemiology and prognosis; 2. Animal Models of myocarditis – autoimmunity and viral infection and therapeutic interventions; 3. Alterations of the immune system in human viral and inflammatory cardiomyopathy; 4. Diagnostic concepts of inflammatory and viral cardiomyopathy in endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs) including cardiac magnetic resonance; 5. Conventional and immunomodulatory treatment strategies in inflammatory cardiomyopathy patients. An international group of authors discusses topics as the histological Dallas criteria for clinical diagnostics, emerging relevance of immunohistological detection of DCMi and detectability of viruses in EMBs, and epidemiology and standard clinical treatment of acute myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy patients. This volume serves as a valuable source for cardiologists and cardiovascular pathologists to update their knowledge on DCMi, a still enigmatic and fascinating cardiovascular disorder, which has made major steps from bench to bedside in the past decade.