Myopericarditis as an Initial Presentation of Meningococcemia

From the Cardiovascular and Infectious Disease Divisions, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. This work was supported in part by Grant 5432 HL-07049 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland. Requests for reprints shuld be addressed to Dr. James M. Kirshenbaum, Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115. Manuscript submitted December 9, 1985, and accepted January 22, 1986. Acute meningococcemia is a dramatic clinical syndrome from infection with the gram-negative diplococcus, Neisseria meningitidis. Although pericarditis may complicate the course of meningococcemia, it is distinctly unusual as a presenting sign. A case of disseminated meningococcemia presenting as acute myopericarditis is reported. The serotype isolated, type W135, was a sporadic cause of N. meningitidis in the Boston area. Although the patient had meningitis, bacteremia, and myopericarditis, his course was uncomplicated with early institution of antibiotic therapy.