MYOCARDITIS

In this case, a young man was found dead on his bed when he was called for supper.  There were needle marks in his arm and enlarged lymph nodes at the base of his liver.  He had developed myocarditis, an infection of the heart muscle, from using dirty needles.

The picture at far left shows the opened heart with some very dark red areas visible on the left side (see arrow).  The picture at near left is a dissected strip of heart muscle.  The large dark areas are the areas of infection.

The bottom image is a photomicrograph of the heart muscle.  The lower half of the photomicrograph shows normal heart muscle cells.  The upper half of the picture shows how the muscle fibers have been destroyed by the infection.  After a significant amount of heart muscle was destroyed, the young man died.

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