Acute Myocarditis-Like Episode in a Curly-Haired Young Boy—Red Flags for Familial Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

The present case report describes a mother and son with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) with early and greater left ventricle (LV) involvement. The presence of curly hair in both, together with the resuscitated sudden cardiac death of the mother, allowed timely genetic testing, which found a pathogenic nonsense mutation of the desmoplakin gene. While asymptomatic from an arrhythmic point of view, the son’s evolution was characterized by a well-documented exercise-induced myocarditis-like stage.

Keywords

• arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy
• sudden cardiac death
• myocarditis
• cardiovascular magnetic resonance
• cardiocutaneous syndrome
• desmoplakin