Pericardial disease: a clinical review

ABSTRACT

Pericardial disease is infrequently encountered in cardiovascular practice, but can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Clinical data and practice guidelines are relatively sparse. Early recognition and prompt treatment of pericardial diseases are critical to optimize patient outcomes. In this review we provide a concise summary of acute pericarditis, constrictive pericarditis and pericardial effusion/tamponade.

KEYWORDS:

• Pericarditis
• constrictive pericarditis
• pericardial effusion
• tamponade

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or a financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending or royalties. The authors would like to thank Dr Rizwan Karatela for providing the pericardial anatomy figures and Lauren Sutton for her secretarial support.