Clinical Presentation and Laboratory Findings in Men Versus Women with Myocarditis

Understanding sex differences in myocarditis is crucial to improve clinical care. We sought to investigate sex differences focusing on clinical presentation and laboratory parameters. From 2011 to 2018, 77 patients were diagnosed with myocarditis according to European Society of Cardiology (ESC) criteria with available clinical, laboratory, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging data. First, we investigated sex differences of clinical and laboratory parameters in the entire cohort of 77 patients. Second, we focused on patients with acute myocarditis (n = 51) defined as recent symptom onset (≤10 days). Myocarditis was present in 63 men (82%) and 14 women (18%). While men most frequently presented with chest pain (78%), a considerable amount of women presented with dyspnea as the only symptom (40%). Within the entire cohort, only creatinine kinase (CK) was higher in men versus women (364 ± 286 vs. 147 ± 148 U/L, p = 0.007), while in patients with acute myocarditis both CK and myoglobin (Mb) were higher in men versus women (CK: 327 ± 223 vs. 112 ± 65 U/L, p = 0.004 and Mb: 111 ± 126 vs. 25 ± 29 μg/L, p = 0.04). No sex differences were found for high-sensitivity troponin T, C-reactive protein, and NT-probrain natriuretic peptide. This is the first study reporting sex differences in clinical presentation and routine laboratory parameters in myocarditis. While clinical presentation appeared to be subtle in women with dyspnea being the only presenting symptom of myocarditis in a considerable part, men typically complained of chest pain. Similarly to observations in myocardial infarction, atypical symptoms and underdiagnosis may be a cause for under-representation of women in cohorts of myocarditis.