[Clinical morphological characteristics of a heart lesion in drug allergy]

Observation of 40 patients with drug myocarditis developing in the presence of acute manifestations of drug allergy, and morphological examination of the myocardium of 15 patients who had died of different manifestations of allergy and drug myocarditis show that drug myocarditis develops quite often in acute manifestations of allergy. This is confirmed by the clinical symptoms, the electrocardiographic findings and the results of immunological study with the use of the leukocyte migration inhibition test with the cardiac antigen. In contrast to persons of the control groups, patients with drug myocarditis showed positive results beginning with the 4th-5th day of the development of the pathological process in the myocardium. The migration index was 40.6% on the average (normal value 80%). The morphological findings indicated the development of delayed and immediate allergic processes in the heart manifested by reaction of the myocardiocytes, stroma and vessels. The degree of severity and character of the morphological changes corresponded to the clinical picture of myocarditis.