coxackie virus

[MissaBaby]

I read on the web that coxackie can cause CM. I had it about 12 years ago, could that have been a cause for what happened to me this year with the PPCM?

[JAMESFETT]

Coxsackievirus is in the enterovirus group and is one of the most common causes of viral myocarditis, which clearly can go on to dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure. Two investigators have identified coxsackievirus in peripartum cardiomyopathy patients. It is entirely possible that you could have had a viral myocarditis and that the virus reactivated during pregnancy or that it could have changed over to an autoimmune myocarditis during pregnancy. Alternatively, you could have started your pregnancy with an unrecognized cardiomyopathy and the stressses of pregnancy caused you to become symptomatic. Hopefully, you are doing well and will continue to do so.

JDF

[MissaBaby]

Thank you for your reply. Just another question along those lines...my dog died of bacterial endo carditis one month before I delivered and got my diagnosis. Is his condition something that I could have caught and brought about the PPCM??

[heartfulloflove]

I'm sorry, I'm a thread hijacker, I always come up with questions about the research.

I am curious if viruses that result in cardiomyopathies always have a myocarditis as a precursor to the CM, or if the CM can occur without. I'm speaking in terms of run of the mill CM in general, not necessarily PPCM - since I know there is the autoimmune component there too.

Thanks for putting up with my curiosity, lol :D

MissaBaby: I wondered something similar. My friend's dog had a problem with Parvovirus (another known cardiotropic) and I know some dogs are prone to DCMs due to viruses like that. My vet has always assured me that we cannot catch most animal viruses, but I believe Parvovirus is one exception to the rule...so there may be others.

[JAMESFETT]

For MissaBaby: Bacterial endocarditis develops on an abnormal valve. That is never the case in PPCM. You can safely think of those as two different and unrelated events.

For Shannon: virus associated cardiomyopathy can occur from a clinical case of viral myocarditis or from a latent (unrecognized) inflammatory process in the heart (inflammatory cardiomyopathy or lymphocytic myocarditis) or from a mere presence in heart muscle without any apparent inflammation, and seemingly associated with an autoimmune process.

JDF