Can a severe case of MRSA cause cardiomyopathy?

To whom It May Concern

I am searching for information that cardiomyopathy can be brought
on by severe infection. My husband was very healthy until he developed
the resiliant strain of staph in 2004. His whole chest cavity was full
of it and it had started to attack his heart. They don't know how he
got it as he had not had surgery. He had to have surgery to get rid of
it. We had fought it on and off until his death in April of this year.
His cardiomyopathy had not been diagnosed. From what I have learned so
far he died from what is called sudden death from cardiomyopathy. Can
you tell me if the staph could have started the process of
cardiomyopathy? They tell me his heart weighed 445 grams at death.
Can
something like that go so undetected? I am just looking for some
answers. Anything you could do for
me would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You
Janis Dillard

Causes of Sudden Cardiac Death. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Formerly known as IHSS ... A Clone of MRSA Among Professional Football Players, NEJM. ...
www.sjsu.edu/at/docs/CardioandDiseases... - Similar pages

Infective Endocarditis - Patient UK .................

A microbial infection (usually bacterial, occasionally fungal) of the endocardium.
There must be damage to the endothelial surface of the heart or blood vessels, as most bacteria cannot adhere to normal endothelium. Staph aureus, Pneumocooci, and Gononcocci are some exceptions.
The usual site is the valves, where non-laminar flow causes deposition of platelets and fibrin, producing a sterile thrombotic vegetation. Thus involves degenerative, rheumatic, congenitally abnormal, or prosthetic valves, but VSD, PDA, AV fistula, and mural thrombi, are other potential sites.
During bacteraemia, microbes embed in the vegetation and multiply, being resistant to host defences by virtue of overlying fibrin and platelets. 95% of vegetations are found on left side of the heart involving mitral valve in 86% cases, aortic valve in 55%, tricuspid in 20% and pulmonary valve in 1%.

Tachycardiomyopathy: a diagnosis not to be missed -- Walker et al ...He developed methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia and ... A review of the causes of dilated cardiomyopathy in a case series of 1278 ...
heart.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full... - Similar pages

Sorry to hear of your loss - I hope some of this helps your research.

Staphylococcus aureus can cause endocarditis after bacteremia, in such cases, all heart valves may be affected, but the most frequent is Aortic valve. And the most common is that it appears on people with previous heart disease.
It is possible it wasn't diagnosed because signs are usually pretty unspecific like fever, anemia, And metastatic abscesses on skin and a heart murmur, which can be erroneously interpreted as the functional eyective breath found in anemic syndrome.
Hope you find this useful

No, according to my husband who is an Infectious Diseases physician, MRSA should not cause cardiomyopathy. I am so sorry for your loss and I hope you find answers for all you questions. My son, age 8, died in 1994 from sudden death due to cardiomyopathy. Peace. Debi