摘要：Background: Myocarditis is an uncommon disease that presents with a wide range of symptoms in children and adults. It is histologically characterized by varying degrees of myocardialnecrosis, edema and cellular infiltration myocardial inflammation is a nonspecificresponse to many triggers such as bacterial infection, cardio toxic agents, ormechanical injury. Objective: This study was carried out to investigate the experimental Streptococcus faecalis induction of myocarditis and its effect on some blood parameters, inflammatory markers and histopathological changes in male albino rats. Methods: Rats were infected by intraperitoneal injection of 10 8 CFU/ ml of Streptococcus faecalis and sacrificed after one, two and seven days post infection. Biochemical analyses of blood were carried out to investigate the serum biomarkers of inflammation, liver function tests, cardiac enzymes & kidney function tests. Results: All biochemical analyses showed statistically significant increase in the measured parameters due to bacterial infections except for blood urea which appear to be normal. A significant positive correlation was observed between lactate dehydrogenase enzyme (LDH) with creatinine (r =0.778, P Conclusion: Many of these biomarkers will provide important new insights into pathophysiology and aid in the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular patients. Keywords : Cardiovascular diseases, Myocarditis, Rat, Streptococcus faecalis, C-reactive protein African Health Sciences 2013; 13(4): 1062 - 1070
