A six-year study of coxsackievirus B infections in heart disease.

Virological examination of 385 patients with suspected heart disease and 26 with Bornholm disease over a period of 6 years suggested that Coxsackie group B virus infections were associated with at least half the cases of acute myocarditis and one third of the cases of acute non-bacterial pericarditis. Complement-fixation tests revealed only a few cardiac illnesses associated with other infections (influenza and Mycoplasma pneumoniae). No evidence of infection was found in chronic cardiac disease.