VCAM1 and cardiomyopathy: Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is predominantly expressed on activated endothelia during inflammation as a ligand for α1β4 integrins, mediating recruitment of leukocytes.[5] Its soluble form, referred to as sVCAM-1, has been shown to correlate with disease activity in various entities including rheumatoid arthritis (RA)[6] or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)[7, 8] and predicts unfavourable outcome in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).[9] We previously described VCAM-1 to be strongly upregulated in the hearts of mice with coxsackie virus-induced cardiomyopathy.