16/02/2026
Heart inflammation happens after you have an injury or infection in your heart. This rare condition can be mild, serious or in between the two extremes. Mild cases don’t need treatment, and medication helps with all three types of carditis. Recovery can take many weeks. If you have a bad case, you may need procedures or a medical device.
🫀Endocarditis: Bacteria infect the lining of the heart chambers your blood goes through and the valves that control blood flow between those chambers. It can go to other parts of your body and infect those areas, too.
🫀Myocarditis: This harms the muscle that makes your heart pump. Inflamed heart muscle has a harder time pumping blood.
🫀Pericarditis: This affects the sac (pericardium) around the outside of your heart. When inflamed, your pericardium’s two layers get thicker. They also brush against each other and your heart muscle.
Common symptoms for all three types of heart inflammation include chest pain, shortness of breath and fever.
Other signs of carditis are more specific to the type you have, like:
Pain in your belly, blood in your p*e or night sweats (with endocarditis)
Swelling in your legs or feet, heart palpitations or extreme tiredness (with myocarditis)
A fast heartbeat and chest pain that gets better when you sit up and lean forward (with pericarditis)
When a virus causes heart inflammation, you can have symptoms from the virus first.