IMR Press / FBL / Volume 9 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.2741/1255

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Parasitic diseases of the heart
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1 Departments of Internal Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Epidemiology, University of Iowa; and the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Iowa City, Iowa
2 The Departments of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
3 The Departments of Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2004, 9(1), 706–723; https://doi.org/10.2741/1255
Published: 1 January 2004
Abstract

The following chapter is one of a series of chapters in the volume entitled Infections of the Myocardium appearing in Frontiers in Bioscience. The full table of contents can be found at http://www.bioscience.org/current/special/tanowitz.htm. In this chapter, we review several parasitic infections involving the myocardium and pericardium. The most widely studied parasitic infection affecting the heart is Chagas' disease or American trypanosomiasis. In this chapter we describe issues relating to Chagas' disease not covered in detail in other chapters. African trypanosomiasis may also cause a myocarditis. The protozoan parasite, Entamoeba histolytica rarely causes a pericarditis while Toxoplasma gondii may cause myocarditis, usually in immunocompromised hosts. The larval forms of the tapeworms Echinococcus and Taenia solium may cause space-occupying lesions of the heart. Severe infection with the nematode Trichinella spiralis may cause myocarditis.

Keywords
Parasites
Myocarditis
Cardiomyopathy
Chagas’ disease
Toxoplasmosis
Trichinosis
Amebiasis
Echinococcus
Cysticercosis
Endocardial fibroelastosis
Review
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