Low prevalence of hepatitis C virus antibodies and RNA in patients with myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy.

We investigated the prevalence of hepatitis C virus in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and myocarditis in comparison to a control group of patients suffering from noninflammatory cardiac diseases such as aortic stenosis. In contrast to the results of previous studies on small numbers of patients, no significant difference in the prevalence of hepatitis C infections was observed. Our data suggest that HCV is not an important causal agent for myocarditis and DCM.