Disease & disorder

Loeffler endocarditis

MONDO:0019159

Loeffler's endocarditis is a rare restrictive cardiomyopathy characterized by hypereosinophilia and fibrous thickening of the endocardium, with usually large thrombi against the ventricle walls, that can lead to cardiovascular complications such as heart failure and thromboembolism. It manifests with symptoms like edema, fatigue and shortness of breath. It is usually secondary to eosinophil-associated tissue damage and is associated with idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome, chronic eosinophilic leukemia, carcinoma, or lymphoma.

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Background context

Loeffler endocarditis

Loeffler endocarditis is a form of heart disease characterized by a stiffened, poorly-functioning heart caused by infiltration of the heart by white blood cells known as eosinophils. Restrictive cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle which results in impaired diastolic filling of the heart ventricles, i.e. the large heart chambers which pump blood into the pulmonary or systemic circulation. Diastole is the part of the cardiac contraction-relaxation cycle in which the heart fills with venous blood after the emptying done during its previous systole (i.e. contraction). An eosinophil-based specific type of heart damage was first described by the Swiss doctor, Wilhelm Loeffler, in 1936. As initially described, the disorder manifests as a restrictive cardiomyopathy, i.e. a poorly expanding and contracting rigid heart that was infiltrated with eosinophils and showed replacement of heart cells by stiff fibrotic connective tissue. Loeffler endocarditis is now regarded as a manifestation of eosinophilic myocarditis, a disorder that involves the infiltration of the heart's muscular layer by eosinophils that leads to three progressive clinical stages. The first stage involves acute inflammation and subsequent death of heart muscle cells. This stage is dominated by signs and symptoms of the acute coronary syndrome such as angina, heart attack, and congestive heart failure. In the second stage, the endocardium (i.e. interior wall) of the heart forms blood clots which break off and then travel through and block various arteries; this clotting stage may dominate the initial pr...

Background only. Canonical identity remains MONDO; clinical-trial relationships come from ClinicalTrials.gov.

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Disease identity and terminology: MONDO. Trial relationships: ClinicalTrials.gov.