[Diagnosis of myocarditis with endomyocardial biopsy]

Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) was performed in 24 cases suspected of having myocarditis and 42 cases with cardiac symptoms and signs of unknown etiology. There was an obvious correlation between the clinical manifestations and the pathological findings in cases suspected of having myocarditis (r = 0.5296, P less than 0.005). The ratio of correspondence was 78.8%. It is shown that EMB is more sensitive than 201TI myocardial imaging in diagnosing myocarditis and serial EMB can follow its clinical process closely. Moreover, EMB can discriminate myocarditis from myocardiopathy.