The cardiovascular diseases

THE ACUTE PERICARDITIS

- Definition
- The Symptoms
- How to make the diagnosis?
- Diagnosis of assess gravity
- The Causes
- Evolution
- Treatment
- Conclusion

HOW TO MAKE THE DIAGNOSIS OF AN ACUTE PERICARDITIS?

1 - With the help of the clinical exam achieved by the physician

In most typical cases, the physician hears, on listening to his patient's heart, the sound of a friction rub. However, this sign is fleeting and present in solely 50% of the cases, but it is a fundamental sign.

It is an intense superficial sound (“squealing of the new leather”) or on the contrary very soft (“rubbing of the tissue paper”). Its fleeting and localized characters must lead to a new auscultation.

When the picture is complete, the pericarditis diagnosis achieved by the physician is easy. The absence of fever and rubbing of the pericardium sometimes make the diagnosis wander. The features of the pain then become essential.

The patient must then be addressed to a cardiologist or to hospital in order to achieve exams.

2 - The physician then achieves an electrocardiogram

The signs of a pericarditis on the electrocardiogram are frequent but sometimes late.

Thus, the cardiologist will very quickly achieve an echocardiography.

3 - The echocardiography

The essential exam of the pericarditis diagnosis is the echocardiography, which displays the presence of a liquid in the pericardium in 80% of the cases. The characteristic sign of effusion is the presence of a blank spaceunsticking the 2 leaflets of the pericardium.

Visualization of the heart with an echocardiography device. The pericarditis is signalled by the arrow and corresponds to a removal of the two leaflets of the pericardium that is “the heart envelope”.
lv: left ventricle, rv: right ventricle,
la: left auricle.

The abundance of the extrusion and the repercussion on the heart are also assessed.

Abundant effusions can give rise to the heart flutter phenomenon.

Previous     Next

File last reviewed on dec 18, 2011