Chylothorax as the first manifestation of
constrictive pericarditis. Am J Med 2003;114:772-3.
In
constrictive pericarditis, chest X-ray shows a normal-sized heart, despite the clinical signs of congestive heart failure.
Traditionally, increased pericardial thickness has been considered a specific diagnostic feature of
constrictive pericarditis, but these days there is also a subset of patients with hemodynamic signs of
constrictive pericarditis and normal thickness of the pericardium [3].
In Case 1, pericardial involvement in the acute stage of Q fever likely progressed to chronic
constrictive pericarditis because diagnosis and appropriate treatment were delayed.
Differentiation of
constrictive pericarditis from restrictive cardiomyopathy: the case for high-resolution dynamic tomographic imaging.
Gastro-intestinal protein loss in patients with heart failure has mainly been found in association with
constrictive pericarditis [4, 5].
Complications were minimal, but included postpericardiotomy syndrome, temporary right ventricular dysfunction, temporary low output failure, postoperative atrial fibrillation, complete heart block, postoperative hemorrhage, tricuspid insufficiency, and
constrictive pericarditis.
In a study of 15 cases of
constrictive pericarditis and 17 normal controls, diastolic venous collapse was identified in 8 of 15 cases (6).
ARCAPA may be associated with other congenital and acquired heart diseases, including aortopulmonary window, truncus arteriosus, anomalous subclavian artery, tetralogy of Fallot,
constrictive pericarditis, bicuspid aortic valve, and mitral regurgitation [7, 9-15].
Echocardiography showed findings compatible with pulmonary hypertension, diastolic dysfunction, and
constrictive pericarditis (Figure 4).
Rabin, "
Constrictive pericarditis, pneumopericardium and aortic aneurysm due to histoplasma capsulatum," The New England Journal of Medicine, vol.