Pathophysiology and aetiological diagnosis of inflammatory myocardial diseases with a special focus on parvovirus B19.

Inflammatory processes induced by viral or bacterial infections are believed to be one of the major pathogenetic mechanisms in myocardial diseases. Although the reason for progression to myocardial failure is not fully understood, postulated mechanisms include persistent viral infection alone or in combination with autoimmune processes. A variety of cardiotropic viruses have been identified to elicit myocarditis, with enteroviruses and adenoviruses as the most frequent causative agents in children and adolescents.

Detection of viral and bacterial protein in endomyocardial biopsies of patients with inflammatory heart muscle disease?

The development of highly sensitive molecular biological methods such as in-situ hybridization and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) made it possible to detect viral/bacterial nucleic acid in human endomyocardial biopsies. However, only a few investigations addressed the problem of latent persistence of viral and bacterial genome and the detection of the corresponding proteins, which could have important consequences for the clinical course of the disease. The purpose of this study was to determine whether protein of various viruses (adenovirus, enterovirus, cytomegalovirus, influenza A and B virus, herpes simplex virus 1 and 2) and bacteria (chlamydia pneumonia) can be detected in endomyocardial biopsies of patients with myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy with and without inflammation by use of an immunofluorescence assay and to compare the frequency of its detection with the results of PCR, immunohistology and serology.

[The influence of low-frequency DC (system Kraus-Lechner) on bone growth (author's transl)].

Osteons of Beagle-ulnae were calculated in growth. Controlled osteons were compared with osteons after "therapy". Stimulation was made with electro-nails system Kraus-Lechner.