Myocarditis was last critically surveyed nearly a decade ago. During that time, our knowledge of viral-induced myocardial injury, autoimmune pathways in the heart, and the clinical treatment of myocarditis has advanced significantly. In Myocarditis: From Bench to Bedside, Leslie T. Cooper, Jr., md, has assembled a panel of leading clinical and scientific experts to comprehensively review this new knowledge, highlighting advances in both our basic scientific understanding and our current clinical knowledge of inflammatory heart disease. Topics covered span many disciplines, from the genetics of cardiotropic viral virulence to clinical epidemiology and treatment. On the clinical side the diagnosis, prognosis, and management of both nonspecific and specific myocarditis are extensively discussed in separate chapters devoted to such major idiopathic clinical entities as cardiac sarcoidosis, giant cell myocarditis, eosinophilic myocarditis, Chagas disease, rheumatic fever, and human immunodeficiency virus-related cardiomyopathy. Research articles complete the picture with discussions of the role of apoptosis in viral myocarditis, rat and mouse models of autoimmune giant cell and lymphocytic myocarditis, and the latest available data on enteroviral proteases and cardiomyopathy. Cutting-edge molecular methods of viral genome detection and both invasive and noninvasive diagnostic methods for viral and autoimmune myocarditis are also presented. §Multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art, and richly illustrated, Myocarditis: From Bench to Bedside is the first book to cover the entire spectrum of myocarditis from basic research to bedside medicine, providing today's researchers and clinicians a platform for understanding these diseases and today's significantly improved treatments for congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, and premature cardiovascular death.
