A 48 year old man with amoebic pericarditis did not improve after pericardiocentesis. Facilities for echocardiography and haemodynamic studies were not available. Cardiac compression was suspected and at emergency pericardiectomy subacute effusive constrictive amoebic pericarditis was found. The patient recovered. This is believed to be the first report of a case of subacute effusive constricti...

A 41 year old male with psoriatic arthritis developed progressive dyspnoea and airflow obstruction following 4 months of intramuscular gold therapy. Open lung biopsy revealed bronchiolitis obliterans of the constrictive type. This case suggests a possible aetiological role for gold in the pathogenesis of constrictive bronchiolitis obliterans, or alternatively an association between psoriatic ar...

Constrictive pericarditis — Constrictive pericarditis is the result of scarring and consequent loss of the normal elasticity of the pericardial sac. Pericardial constriction is typically chronic, but variants include subacute, transient, and occult constriction. Pathologically, this results in chronic inflammation and, frequently, calcification. Grossly, the pericardium is considerably thicker ...

Thirty-five children under 16 years of age were prepared for pericardiectomy on account of constrictive pericarditis; three died in the immediate preparatory period. Pericardiectomy was undertaken in 32; in 28 the cause was tuberculous. The purpose of this report is to draw attention to the high incidence of constrictive pericarditis in African children in Natal.

It is difficult to distinguish between restrictive cardiomyopathy and constrictive pericarditis on the basis of clinical findings and simple investigation. Cardiac catheterisation has been the reference standard for diagnosis but even this does not always permit an accurate distinction. A Summagraphics digitiser and Prime 750 computer system were used to digitise the echocardiograms of 15 patie...

Systolic time intervals in 15 patients with constrictive pericarditis and seven patients with restrictive cardiomyopathy were compared in order to assess their value in the differential diagnosis of the two disorders. Clinical examination had failed to make the distinction. Right heart catheterization was helpful in diagnosing restriction but failed to differentiate patients with constrictive p...

Because of the close anatomic association, the volume or pressure in one ventricle can directly influence the volume and pressure in the other ventricle. Disease states that reduce pericardial compliance should accentuate this coupling between the ventricles. We examined this hypothesis in six dogs. Constrictive pericarditis was induced by injecting an irritant mixture into the pericardial cavi...

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...

BACKGROUND Constrictive pericarditis represents a serious hemodynamic syndrome that may lead to heart failure. Studies of its pathophysiological mechanisms have been impeded by the lack of an animal model. METHODS AND RESULTS Cardiac myosin-induced experimental autoimmune myocarditis in interferon (IFN)-gamma-knockout (KO) mice results in increased cardiac inflammation and development of seve...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Tuberculous (TB) pericarditis is a major cause of constrictive pericarditis requiring pericardiectomy. We sought to determine initial prognostic factors in patients with TB pericarditis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We evaluated initial presentation and clinical outcomes (mean follow-up 32±27 months) in 60 consecutive patients newly diagnosed with TB pericarditis. RESULTS ...