SDC4 and familial dilated cardiomyopathy: To investigate whether circulating syndecan-4 levels were elevated in patients with a high degree of inflammation in the myocardium, we separated the DCM patients into inflammatory (chronic myocarditis, n = 71) and non-inflammatory (n = 318) DCM, where inflammation was defined as >14 infiltrating cells/mm2 on immunohistochemistry.