Therefore, although our patients were largely in the vulnerable 18-30 age category, our denominator included the full adult age spectrum. As such it is possible that the numbers, we quote are an underestimate of incidence for the 18-30 age group itself.
Most reports have emphasized mild illness and brief in-hospital stay – and this was our experience also. However, one of the larger cohorts to date described the need for heart failure treatment in 40% of its myocarditis patients (despite an absence of prior heart failure episodes) and intensive care in 10%(14). That report also demonstrated a clear uptrend in admission for both myocarditis and pericarditis, compared with data for the two prior years.