What does myocarditis mean?

• A. Inflammation of the liver
• B. Inflammation of the brain
• C. Inflammation of the heart muscle
• D. Inflammation of the heart valves

Answer: (C)

Understanding how medical terms show location and process helps decode meanings. myocarditis breaks into myocard- meaning heart muscle and -itis indicating inflammation. So it literally means inflammation of the heart muscle. The other options point to different tissues: hepat- is liver, so hepatitis is inflammation of the liver; encephal- or cerebr- refers to the brain, giving encephalitis or cerebral inflammation; inflammation of the heart valves would use valvul- or endocard- with -itis (valvulitis or endocarditis).