Varicella myocarditis producing congestive cardiomyopathy.

Introduction Although cardiac involvement in varicella has been described at post-mortem in those dying from unrecognized myocarditis or from other varicella complications (Hackel, 1953; Tatter et al., 1964; Moore et al., 1969; Morales, Adelman and Fine, 1971), clinical evidence of heart involvement in this disease is extremely rare, and is usually only recognized when there are suggestive electrocardiographic changes or when cardiac failure supervenes (Vazifdar and Levine, 1952; de Medeiros Neto, de Almeida and Facchini, 1961). In patients who survive there are no reported long-term sequelae. In this report the authors describe the development of intractable cardiac failure and acute congestive cardiomyopathy in a 14-year-old boy who was initially treated in hospital for acute varicella. It is proposed that the cardiomyopathy resulted from severe varicella myocarditis.