Association of Viruses in the Development of Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), primarily inflammatory cardiomyopathy, are characterized by the in-filtration of inflammatory cells into the myocardium. It has a relatively high risk of deteriorating heart function and has heterogeneous etiologies. Inflammatory cardiomyopathy is mainly mediated by viral infections but can also be mediated by protozoa, fungal or bacterial infections. Besides that, there are a wide variety of drugs, tox-ic substances, and systemic immune-mediated diseases that result in the development of cardiovascular diseas-es (CVDs). Despite broad research, inflammatory cardiomyopathy has a poor prognosis. The roles of the patho-gens, host genomic counterparts and environmental triggers in the progression of disease are still under consid-eration, including the role of some viruses as active inducers and others as bystanders. In this review article, we review the available evidence on the types, pathogenesis and treatment of myocarditis, inflammatory cardiomy-opathy, and atherosclerosis with a particular focus on virus-associated cardiac diseases.