Pericarditis

The heart positions in the center of the chest and is surrounded by a sac called the pericardium. This sac consists of two layers, one that fits tightly onto the heart muscle and another looser layer surrounding the inner layer. Inflammation of these tissue layers surrounding the heart is known to pericarditis.

The most common symptom of pericarditis is chest pain which is usually sharp and stabbing and has certain characteristics which helps the doctor to diagnose the disease. The pain can start slowly or suddenly and can go directly to the back, to the neck or to the arm. It can also radiate to the shoulder blade incase of associated irritation of the diaphragm (the flat muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen). The pain can be worse if accompanied with deep breaths. The patient feels worse with the lying flat position and better when leaning forward. If other organs of the body are affected due to the inflammation, the pain can be of different characteristics such as pain with deep breath and shortage of breath. It symbolizes that there is inflammation near lung tissue. The pain with swallowing means inflammation is near the esophagus. Other symptoms may include infection with fever, chills, muscle aches or general depression.

Mostly, there is no cause of pericarditis. It is always result of other problems such as, heart attack or heart surgery, trauma, viral or fungal infection, tumors or cancer, uremia, connective tissue disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, sarcoidosis, scleroderma and some kind of medications.

The primary treatment of pericarditis is medicines that reduce inflammation such as ibuprofen that also helps to accumulate fluid in the pericardial sac. In some cases, short course of narcotic pain medication such as codeine, hydrocodone or oxycodone is suggested depending on the individual situation. However, it is necessary to have treatment of the underlying cause first.

At the severe stage of the Pericarditis when there will be too much fluid present in the pericardial sac pericardiocentesis, a procedure where a thin needle is inserted through the chest wall into the pericardial sac, may be referred. Sometimes, pericardiocentesis can also be done when there is need to set up a cause of pericarditis for example infection or cancer etc. The more than sufficient fluid in the pericardia sac may generate high pressured heart output, hence, preventing it from beating normally.