Dr. Leslie Cooper, Director of the Gonda Vascular Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and the world’s leading expert in Giant Cell Myocarditis (GCM), shares information on the disease GCM. Please watch this video, produced by the Mayo Clinic, which explains Giant Cell Myocarditis.
Giant Cell Myocarditis is a rare form of the disease myocarditis and is universally fatal. If GCM is detected in time, it is almost always treated by receiving a heart transplant. At the time a patient is presenting, Giant Cell Myocarditis is an autoimmune disease, meaning the body’s own immune system is causing damage to the heart; however, the cause of GCM is unknown at this time.
Dr. Cooper has made it his life’s passion to study myocarditis and specifically, Giant Cell Myocarditis. Dr. Cooper and Candace Moose, a GCM survivor, founded the Myocarditis Foundation (MF) in 2005 with the hope of reaching patients and families affected by myocarditis and to begin funding myocarditis-specific research. Today the MF reaches thousands of patients world-wide and has funded over $350,000 in myocarditis-specific research grants.
For more information about Giant Cell Myocarditis, visit our website.