Coxsackie virus B3 perimyocarditis in BALB/c mice: experimental model of chronic perimyocarditis in the right ventricle.

Severe perimyocarditis was induced in weanling BALB/c mice inoculated with Coxsackie virus B3 (Nancy strain). Yellowish-white patches were seen only on the surface of the right ventricle of the heart on the 7th to the 180th day after the inoculation. More than half the animals were affected. Following myocardial degeneration and necrosis, mononuclear cell infiltration was evident on the 7th day. After the 28th day, perimyocardial fibrosis increased and cellular infiltration gradually decreased. Marked perimyocardial fibrosis with calcification which was limited to the right ventricle was observed 90 days after inoculation and persisted to the 180th day. This animal model enables studies on the natural history of perimyocarditis of viral aetiology and its possible sequels, chronic or constrictive pericarditis, in humans. A possible role of Coxsackie virus infection in the pathogenesis of idiopathic right ventricular myocardial hypoplasia in association with right ventricular dilatation in man (Uhl's anomaly) is discussed.