Is a cold a minor illness? The common cold can be fatal! The most serious consequences of the common cold —- outbreak of myocarditis Colds are an easy and common thing for ordinary people, the average person 2-3 times a year, strong body, strong immune system, the number of colds is small; weak people, especially children colds more often. However, some people say that “cold is also a way to improve human immunity”, although there is no conclusive evidence, but I have also heard many patients with malignant tumors say: “My health is very good, even have not had a cold, or I rarely have a cold, and never go into the hospital, did not think that a get! I didn’t expect to get this kind of disease, and I found it hard to accept myself.” So everything can’t be absolute, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing to get a cold once in a while. But for cardiologists, we are afraid of patients in the department catching a cold, especially patients with heart failure, afraid that after they catch a cold, induced lung infection, induced exacerbation of heart failure, maybe this time will not necessarily be able to carry over; maybe after a lot of trouble, and finally rescued, but for patients with heart failure, one more time to aggravate the hospitalization of heart failure, their cardiac function will decline once. At the same time, we are also afraid of post-cold myocarditis, especially “severe myocarditis”, or “fulminant myocarditis”. So when someone asks me, “Can a cold kill you?” I’ll say, “Not usually.” “But is it true that a cold can’t kill you?” “Colds can be deadly!” Maybe you’ll think I’m being alarmist. What is viral myocarditis? Viral myocarditis refers to inflammation of the myocardium caused by viral infection, and its clinical manifestations vary, varying in severity, from asymptomatic localized inflammation of the myocardium to diffuse inflammation of the myocardium leading to severe myocarditis, manifesting acute and severe heart failure, severe arrhythmias and even cardiac arrest and cardiogenic shock. Therefore, if after a cold: (1) 1-2 weeks before the cold symptoms, such as nasal congestion, runny nose, cough and other flu-like symptoms; (2) fever, especially after the improvement of the symptoms of the cold fever; (3) chest pain, or even angina-like symptoms; (4) tachycardia; (5) arrhythmia, especially frequent palpitations, pulse leakage, etc.; (6) chest tightness, shortness of breath and other cardiac symptoms, especially after activity, the symptoms are obvious, and even cardiac arrest and cardiac shock. (6) symptoms of cardiac insufficiency, such as chest tightness and shortness of breath, especially after activities, even at night when the shortness of breath is aggravated by lying down, frequent coughing, and even coughing up pink foamy sputum; (7) sudden death, and the proportion of myocarditis in the causes of sudden death in adolescents is as high as 12%. Symptoms such as, need to be alert to whether it may be myocarditis, should be promptly to the hospital, check the electrocardiogram and blood cardiac enzymes, serum troponin T, if necessary, check the heart ultrasound to see the size of the heart structure and cardiac ejection fraction and other indicators. Generally speaking, viral myocarditis most often appears 1-2 weeks after the cold symptoms of cardiac discomfort, while the outbreak of myocarditis most often appears 2-3 days after the cold serious cardiac symptoms, and in many cases, the resistance is very strong adolescents and strong men. Moreover, the manifestations of myocarditis have a lot of masking, which can lead to missed diagnosis, delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis even if you go to the hospital. Although explosive myocarditis is fierce, if the acute phase is over, about 90% of the patients’ heart can be completely restored to normal, while the mortality rate of non-explosive myocarditis is not as high as that of explosive myocarditis in the acute phase, but about 10-20% of the patients will develop into prolonged myocarditis, which will eventually lead to dilated cardiomyopathy, with enlargement of the heart, gradual decline of cardiac function, and the long-term prognosis is very poor. Therefore, once the symptoms of myocarditis appear, it is necessary to go to an experienced hospital to reduce the mortality rate of acute and chronic phase and chronic disability.