Recurrent pericarditis is probably the most common and troublesome complication of pericarditis, affecting about 20% to 30% of patients after a first attack of acute pericarditis. Recurrent pericarditis is defined as the recurrence of symptoms and signs of pericarditis after an arbitrary symptom-free interval of 6 weeks. A minimal symptom-free interval of 4 to 6 weeks after the index attack is ...

Acute purulent pericarditis, although rare in modern antibiotic era, is a life-threatening condition requiring timely diagnosis and aggressive treatment modalities. We report successfully treated previously healthy immunocompetent 23 years old male patient diagnosed as secondary acute pericarditis caused by methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus with primary skin abscess. The initially pre...

Myocarditis and pericarditis are uncommon complications of human rickettsial, ehrlichial and Bartonella infections. Myocardial inflammation usually occurs in the setting of acute disseminated infection. Organisms associated with myocarditis include: Rickettsia rickettsii, R. conorii, Orientia tsutsugamushi, Coxiella burnetii, Anaplasma phagocytophila (the causative agent of Human Granulocytic E...

The usage of Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator (ICD) since 1980s is becoming more popular these days. The rate of both, endocarditis and constrictive pericarditis are low but it still needs attention. We are reporting a rare case of ICD endocarditis as a result of toe infection in a diabetic patient. This was followed by infectious pericarditis after device removal by open heart surgery and the...

Complications of pectus excavatum surgery include pneumothorax, pleuritis, hemothorax, pericardial effusion, displacement of bar, pericarditis and cardiac injury, etc. This is the case of a 15-year-old boy with cardiac tamponade caused by pericarditis who had taken the operation for a pectus excavatum repair one year previously. The cause was a sternal wire which was used for attachment of the ...

Background: There are no available reference values on treatment of tuberculous pericarditis in the literature and seems it remains controversial. Methods: Twenty nine patients (age ranges 9 75 years) with tuberculous pericarditis were studied retrospectively in this study. Medical recording of all patients undergoing operation for pericardial tuberculosis at the Cardiothoracic ward of Tabriz U...

Between 1955 and 1972, eight children receiving mediastinal irradiation for intrathoracic malignancy developed constrictive pericarditis. Six of these followed irradiation for Hodgkin's disease and represent 7% of 86 children receiving irradiation for that disease. In patients with Hodgkin's disease, the development of constrictive pericarditis was related to the dose of radiation and the use o...

Dear Editor, We read with great interest the work by Masek and Levis published in a recent issue of The Permanente Journal. They describe a classical electrocardiographic evolution of acute pericarditis. In the presented first electrocardiogram (ECG) of Stage I acute pericarditis, we would like to bring to the readers’ attention an interesting ECG finding: Spodick’s sign (Figure 1). This sign h...

Cardiac troponin I (cTnI), a specific marker of myocardial damage, is widely used in man and of increasing importance in veterinary medicine. It is not commonly used in cattle practice although it might be useful as a diagnostic aid of pericarditis. Pericarditis is a common complication of traumatic reticuloperitonitis in cattle but clinical signs are non-specific and diagnostic aids are not re...

Effusive-constrictive pericarditis is a rare condition. In this report, we describe a case of effusive-constrictive pericarditis caused by seronegative rheumatoid arthritis which was successfully treated with surgical pericardiectomy.