Antibodies against heart muscle and nuclear constituents in cardiomyopathy.

C ardiomyopathy is a disease of unknown etiology in which presenting signs and symptoms result predominantly from dysfunction of the myocardium. A number of factors have been implicated in the causation of cardiomyopathy including alcohol,’ nutritional deficiency,2 the postpartal state,3 and virus infections.4*5 Among these considerations is an underlying immunologic disturbance, particularly as it may relate to endomyocardial fibrosis6 The role of autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of cardiomyopathy has been examined in a few previous studies.‘p8 We have reported recently an increased prevalence of antiheart antibody in idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis (IHSS), but not in non-IHSS cardiomyopathy (CM).s The present study was designed to examine additional immunologic parameters in patients with cardiomyopathy.