Fatal parvoviral myocarditis: A case report and review of literature

BACKGROUND Histologically documented cases of parvoviral myocarditis are exceedingly rare. CASE PRESENTATION Here, we report a 41-year old African American immunocompetent patient who died of parvoviral myocarditis after a 10 day illness characterized by fever, headaches, generalized arthralgias, and a maculopapular rash.Autopsy revealed an infiltrate myocarditis composed primarily of T-lymphocytes and macrophages associated with extensive myocardial fibrosis. The diagnosis of parvovirus was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on both pre-mortem serum and post-mortem myocardial tissue METHODS DNA was extracted from tissue and serum and primers were used to amplify DNA sequences of parvovirus B19 using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). CONCLUSION The diagnosis of parvovirus should be considered in cases of fatal myocarditis, and diagnosis can be confirmed at autopsy by molecular techniques.