Is pericarditis serious?

Pericarditis is a relatively serious disease. It is a type of viral pericarditis or idiopathic pericarditis. Although its course is somewhat self-limited, if you do not pay attention to good treatment and conditioning, pericarditis may turn into constrictive pericarditis, which often causes patients to have difficulty breathing, especially after a small amount of exercise. It also often causes chest pain and restricts heart activity.

Is pericarditis serious?

1. Difficulty breathing

Pericarditis can easily cause pericardial effusion, which can easily compress organs adjacent to the heart, such as the lungs, trachea, bronchi, etc. Compression of organs such as the lungs, trachea, and bronchi can cause lung congestion, reduce the body's lung capacity, and result in difficulty breathing. In addition, if the trachea and bronchi are compressed, the patient will experience symptoms such as coughing, hoarseness, and difficulty swallowing.

2. Chest pain

The most important symptom of acute pericarditis is chest pain. The patient's chest pain generally manifests as stabbing or knife-like pain, and the pain radiates to the neck, shoulders, jaw, back, abdomen, and arms. The chest pain is felt more often when the patient inhales, lies on his back or on his left side, and is relieved when the patient sits upright. However, not every patient with acute pericarditis will experience chest pain. The severity of the pain depends on the type of acute pericarditis.

3. Limit Cardiovascular Exercise

When acute pericarditis occurs, the pericardium is prone to scar adhesion and calcification. Over time, the patient's pericardium will form hard and thick scar tissue, which will strictly restrict the contraction and relaxation movements of the patient's heart. The patient will experience symptoms such as pale complexion, difficulty breathing, irritability, dizziness, fatigue, edema and even shock.

What are the examination methods for acute pericarditis?

1. Electrocardiogram: In acute pericarditis, involvement of the superficial myocardium under the endocardium is the anatomical basis of ECG changes. Serial ECG examinations are of great significance for the diagnosis of acute pericarditis.

2. Echocardiography: Checking for the presence of pericardial effusion is a simple, safe, sensitive and reliable non-invasive method for diagnosing pericardial effusion and has been widely used in clinical practice.

3. Blood tests: Infected people may have increased white blood cell counts, increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and increased C-reactive protein concentrations. Troponin may be slightly elevated, which may be related to inflammatory stimulation of the epicardial myocardium. Most patients with acute pericarditis and elevated troponin have normal coronary angiography.

4. X-ray examination: It can be seen that the heart shadow expands to both sides and the heart beats weaken.

5. Pericardiocentesis: When there is pericardial effusion, pericardiocentesis can be performed. The exudate can be smeared, cultured and pathological cells can be found, which will help identify the pathogen.

6. Cardiac CT or cardiac MRI: Cardiac CT and cardiac MRI are increasingly used to diagnose pericarditis. Both can very sensitively detect pericardial effusion and measure pericardial thickness. Cardiac CT can measure pericardial thickening in acute pericarditis, but it is not an indicator for diagnosing acute pericarditis. The most sensitive method for diagnosing acute pericarditis is delayed-image pericardial MRI.