Open AccessConstrictive pericarditis – A challenging diagnosis
Author(s) -
Vittal Hejjaji,
Claire Sullivan,
Jun Li,
Brian D. Hoit
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
case reports in internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2332-7251
pISSN - 2332-7243
DOI - 10.5430/crim.v4n3p25
Subject(s) - constrictive pericarditis , medicine , restrictive cardiomyopathy , modalities , pericarditis , cardiology , treatment modality , radiology , cardiomyopathy , intensive care medicine , heart failure , social science , sociology
Constrictive pericarditis is a challenging diagnosis. This case report describes a patient with constrictive pericarditis (CP) secondary to radiation therapy. As the patient presented with non-specific symptoms, various modalities (both invasive and non-invasive) were used in the diagnosis and differentiation of CP from restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM). This case of surgicallyproven CP demonstrates that a high clinical suspicion based on physical findings should be combined with multiple diagnostic modalities in the diagnosis of CP. It is crucial to differentiate CP from RCM due to the significant variance in treatment.