The small number of studies evaluating IVGG in the treatment of acute myocarditis reflects the immature state of this body of literature. We identified only one RCT (Level 1 evidence), which involved 62 adult patients with idiopathic cardiomyopathy (of which only 10 had histologic evidence of myocarditis) and showed no apparent benefit [
9]. This is in contrast to an uncontrolled trial and numerous observational studies (Level 4 evidence), most of which suggested potential benefit. This indicates a possible bias towards publication of case reports or case series with positive results. The validity of evidence was generally poor, with the majority of included studies ranking low in terms of level of evidence. The most important threat to validity for fifteen of the seventeen included studies was the lack of controls, which could result in an overestimate of the benefit of IVGG. Spontaneous improvement in cardiac function is common with acute myocarditis and can be rapid or gradual, so it is possible that the improvement noted in these cases was part of the natural history of the disease. The retrospective cohort study demonstrated a greater improvement in cardiac function in patients given IVGG compared to historic controls [
17]; this type of study is more susceptible to bias because of the inability to fully control for all potential confounders, such as other changes in patient management over the eight-year study period.
Acute myocarditis is a relatively non-specific entity, as the diagnosis is often clinical. Laboratory confirmation consists of microbiologic, histologic, and immunohistochemical methods. With regard to microbiologic confirmation, it is rare to isolate the etiologic agent from a myocardial biopsy (probably because the biopsy is usually done too late in the course of the illness), and identification of organisms by molecular techniques is in its infancy [
4]. However, with the development of new effective antivirals, there should be increased efforts towards making a virologic diagnosis early in the course of myocarditis as it is possible that antivirals would improve the prognosis. Furthermore, there are case reports of hyperimmunoglobulin showing an apparent effect in cases of varicella [
33], cytomegalovirus [
34], and parvovirus [
35] myocarditis. With regard to histologic confirmation, the Dallas criteria (lymphocyte infiltration with myocyte necrosis) [
36] and more recently the World Heart Federation criteria (>14 leukocytes/mm
2 with necrosis or degeneration) [
37] have been used for histologic diagnosis, but the sensitivity and specificity of these criteria are not known. There are no standardized values for immunohistochemical markers [
38]. Our aim in this study was to analyze reports of use of IVGG for presumed viral myocarditis, but it is possible that many of the patients in the reports did not have viral myocarditis (only 10 of the 62 patients in the RTC had cellular inflammation on endomyocardial biopsy). Once our ability to accurately diagnose viral myocarditis improves, it may be possible to identify a subset of patients who will respond to IVGG. This might be patients whose disease was precipitated by a specific virus, or patients who are treated with IVGG early in the course of their illness when they have ongoing viral replication in the myocardium. Perhaps pediatric patients are more likely to respond. Children are thought to be more likely to present in the acute inflammatory stage of illness [
16], and may have a worse prognosis than do adults when they present with fulminant myocarditis [
39,
40]
In conclusion, the value of IVGG in patients with acute myocarditis is obscured by the poor quality of evidence. We were not able to identify a subgroup of patients who appear to be more likely to respond to IVGG. A large RCT is required to evaluate the efficacy of IVGG for acute myocarditis with emphasis on the etiology of the myocarditis. Until there are RCTs demonstrating benefit, use of IVGG for acute myocarditis should not be part of routine practice. Moreover, there is a great need for further studies of the pathophysiology of acute myocarditis, which would allow for a better understanding of the etiology and the natural history of the disease. This might allow for improved diagnostic criteria, which would make it much easier to design studies of treatment options. This may also assist in identifying sub-groups of patients where IVGG or other therapies have a greater potential to confer clinical benefit.