How do you know if you have Myocarditis?

Myocarditis is a condition of the heart, where there is inflammation of the heart muscle. The condition can be self-limiting to fatal sometimes. In this post, we will learn about what myocarditis is and what are its symptoms.

Myocarditis, what is it?

As already mentioned, it is an inflammation of the heart muscle. Inflammation is a process by which the white blood cells of your body and their products protect you from invading organisms like viruses and bacterias. In doing so, it might cause parallel damage to the organs, and in the case of myocarditis, the heart muscle gets damaged due to inflammation. Myocarditis can occur due to an infection, most commonly viral infection, but there are multiple non-infectious causes of myocarditis as well. Now, how do you know if you have myocarditis, well let us go through the signs and symptoms of myocarditis

Myocarditis Symptoms

Well, symptoms of myocarditis may vary depending on the cause. However as a viral infection is the predominant cause of myocarditis, people often suffer from flu-like infection before the onset of the main symptoms of myocarditis, which includes:

• Chest pain – The most consistent symptom. It is usually diffuse that you might not be able to point the source of pain with one finger, and rather use your palm to localize it.
• Abnormal heartbeat – Usually increased rate of heartbeat of more than 100 beats per minute and may give a sense of palpitation as well
• Signs of Heart failure like
• Shortness of breath, which increases on lying down or working
• Swelling of legs
• Wavelike pulsating veins in the neck
• Fatigue
• A history or present features of flu-like
• Joint Pain
• Fever
• Rash
• Body ache

In case you are having the above features of myocarditis, especially chest pain and shortness of breath, visit a doctor immediately. In case you suffered from flu or viral infections recently, do watch out for symptoms of myocarditis as you recover from the infection, because often the condition occurs after viral infections as I have already mentioned.