Abstract
Background: Myocarditis can be presented with various clinical manifestations that may be wrongfully diagnosed and managed as other illness. Early suspicion and detection would specify the management and improve outcome of such disease. Objectives: To determine the different clinical presentation and findings of acute myocarditis in pediatric patients admitted to PICU and clinical, radiological and laboratory factors that may affect the diagnosis and the outcome. Methods: This cross sectional study included twenty four cases taken as a comprehensive sample due to the relatively rare presentation, all of them are Egyptian children aged between: 1.2 month to 9 years (108 months) old, diagnosed as acute myocarditis during the period from November 2017 till November 2018. Results In our study, the patients were 13 males (54.2%) and 11 females (45.8%). Their age mean was 27.82 ± 30.47 months. Acute heart failure, respiratory distress, cerebral hypoperfusion and epigastric pain were the main clinical presentations of myocarditis. Conclusion: In this study, it was concluded that myocarditis has wide range of clinical presentations that might be missed for other system affection than the heart, and high clinical suspicion is mandatory for early diagnosis and management, and hence, better prognosis would be achieved.