Prion amyloidosis occurred in the heart of 1 of 3 macaques intraperitoneally inoculated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy prions. This macaque had a remarkably long duration of disease and signs of cardiac distress. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, caused by transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to humans, may manifest with cardiac symptoms from prion-amyloid cardiomyopathy.
Keywords: BSE; PrPSc; bovine spongiform encephalopathy; cardiomyopathy; primates; prions; vCJD; variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.