According to the study, 34.4% of the children who developed dilated cardiomyopathy after developing myocarditis had a genetic variant that made them more susceptible to this condition. In comparison, only 6.3% of control children had these cardiomyopathy gene variants and this difference was highly significant.

Dilated cardiomyopathy is where the heart’s main pumping chamber stretches and becomes thin; it can lead to heart failure, when the heart is unable to adequately perfuse the body with oxygen. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart and, while rare, it has been identified in a federal database as the leading cause of sudden death among people under the age of 20.