Constrictive pericarditis and rheumatoid arthritis
Baubion, N.; Vacheron, A.; Heulin, A.; Gilles, R.; Le Sourd, P.; Le Parc, J.M.; Di Matteo, J.
Archives des Maladies du Coeur et des Vaisseaux 72(9): 1023-1028
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-9683 PMID: 116613 Document Number: 149599
Pericarditis is the commonest cardiac manifestation of rhumatoid arthritis. It is often clinically latent but it may evolve to constriction or less often to tamponade. The case presented is of a 60 year-old woman with a 5 year history of seropositive nodular rhumatoid arthritis in whom bilateral pleural effusions and constrictive pericarditis were observed after sudden termination of corticotherapy. She was treated successfully by pericardectomy. This complication is far from being exceptional (55 cases already reported). It justifies a systematic search for pericarditis in rhumatoid arthritis, especially by echocardiography.