Carditis

Carditis, or inflammation of the heart, a form of disease of very rare occurrence, if the term be limited in its application to cases of true acute inflammation of the muscular structure of the heart alone (myocarditis). Carditis, however, was commonly understood in a wider sense, so as to include certain forms of disease of the external and internal lining membrane of the heart; and it is only since the beginning of the present century that, owing to the improvements in medical pathology and diagnosis, the names of Pericarditis and Endocarditis (q.v.) have come prominently into view as indicating the most ordinary inflammatory affections of the heart. See HEART (DISEASES OF THE).