Study suspended due to logistical/personnel difficulties

Myocarditis is mainly caused by cardiotropic viruses. In recent time viruses found in endomyocardial biopsies mainly consist of parvovirus B19 (PVB19) and human herpesvirus 6 (HHV6). A definite causal link between virus-genome detection of PVB19 and/or HHV6 (via pcr techniques)and cardiac inflammation and dysfunction is however still missing.

Primary objective:

To determine the prevalence of PVB19 and HHV6 virus genome in heart muscle biopsies of cardiac surgery patients without clinical evidence of myocarditis or myocarditic sequelae

Secondary objectives:

1. Correlation of non-invasive myocarditis screening exams (cardiac magnetic resonance, ecg, history, inflammatory markers) with biopsy results
2. Prognostic value of virus prevalence for the postoperative course

Primary hypothesis:

Patients without clinical evidence of myocarditis or myocarditic sequelae demonstrate to a significant lesser extent inflammatory activity and virus genome in their myocardium as compared to patients being clinical suspicious for myocarditis.

Prospective monocentric study with to 2 arms

Study arm: Cardiac surgery group, Control arm: Routine cardiology group Minimum of 100 patients included into the study arm

Inclusion criteria for the study arm:

Adult patients having cardiac surgery done under use of cardiopulmonary bypass

Data collection:

Past medical history, ecg, prior cardiovascular imaging (echo, ventriculography), cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR), serologic studies, work-up of endomyocardial biopsies (histology, molecular-pathology, follow-up CMR.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass

Exclusion Criteria:

• No ability to give informed consent
• presence of so far accepted parvovirus/herpesvirus associated comorbidities
• contraindications for magnetic resonance