Pericarditis.

Melioidosis pericarditis mimicking tuberculous pericarditis.

Cases of melioidosis (N = 2) and tuberculous pericarditis (N = 33) during 1996-2006 were reviewed. Clinical presentations were similar, but pericardial pathological findings were not. Nine of 12 patients with melioidosis required pericardectomy. In areas where these diseases are endemic, pericardial fluid culture and pericardial biopsy can differentiate between melioidosis and tuberculosis.

Progressive Constrictive Pericarditis Shortly after Purulent Pericarditis

Predictors of constrictive pericarditis after tuberculous pericarditis.

OBJECTIVE To identify features which predict the subsequent development of constrictive pericarditis from acute or subacute tuberculous (TB) pericarditis. SETTING Tertiary referral centre, chest hospital. PATIENTS The records of 16 consecutive patients in whom acute or subacute TB pericarditis was diagnosed between 1988 and 1990 at a chest hospital were reviewed. These records included a fo...

Risk of constrictive pericarditis after acute pericarditis.

BACKGROUND Constrictive pericarditis (CP) is considered a rare, dreaded possible complication of acute pericarditis. Nevertheless, there is a lack of prospective studies that have evaluated the specific risk according to different etiologies. The aim of this study is to evaluate the risk of CP after acute pericarditis in a prospective cohort study with long-term follow-up. METHODS AND RESULTS...

Purulent pericarditis.

Eleven children under 16 years of age with purulent pericarditis were seen in one hospital in one year. The condition was always secondary to a septic focus elsewhere, usually staphylococcal pneumonia; its incidence after pneumonia was 0.64%, but this may be an underestimate. Clinical diagnosis can be difficult in patients with pneumonia as the heart is not always enlarged. Persistent or progre...