Symptoms of Pericarditis
Symptoms of Pericarditis
The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources
for Pericarditis includes the 10
symptoms listed below:
Research symptoms & diagnosis of Pericarditis:
Pericarditis: Complications
Review medical complications possibly associated with Pericarditis:
Pericarditis Symptoms: Book Excerpts
Diagnostic Testing
Diagnostic testing of medical conditions related to Pericarditis:
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Do I have Pericarditis?
Pericarditis: Medical Mistakes
Pericarditis: Undiagnosed Conditions
Diseases that may be commonly undiagnosed in related medical areas:
Home Diagnostic Testing
Home medical tests related to Pericarditis:
Wrongly Diagnosed with Pericarditis?
The list of other diseases or medical conditions
that may be on the differential diagnosis list of alternative diagnoses
for Pericarditis includes:
See the full list of 13
alternative diagnoses for Pericarditis
Pericarditis: Research Doctors & Specialists
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More about symptoms of Pericarditis:
More information about symptoms of Pericarditis and related conditions:
Other Possible Causes of these Symptoms
Click on any of the symptoms below to see a full list
of other causes including diseases, medical conditions, toxins, drug interactions,
or drug side effect causes of that symptom.
Medical Books Online about Pericarditis
Medical Books Excerpts
Excerpts of published medical book chapters related to Pericarditis
are available from published medical books
for more detailed information about Pericarditis.
Medical Books Excerpts
- Myocarditis
- "Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition)" (2005)
- [ read ]
Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.
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Patient Surveys for Pericarditis
Symptoms of Pericarditis: Online Medical Books
16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE!
Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration,
for more information about the symptoms of Pericarditis.
Endocarditis:
Signs and Symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Malaise, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, anorexia, arthralgia, night sweats, chills, valvular insufficiency, intermittent fever, loud murmur
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Myocarditis:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Myocarditis usually causes nonspecific symptoms — such as fatigue, dyspnea, palpitations, and fever — that reflect the accompanying systemic infection. Occasionally, it may produce mild, continuous pressure or soreness in the chest (unlike the recurring, stress-related pain of angina pectoris). Although myocarditis is usually self-limiting, it may induce myofibril degeneration that results in right- and left-sided heart failure, with cardiomegaly, jugular vein distention, dyspnea, persistent fever with resting or exertional tachycardia disproportionate to the degree of fever, and supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias. Sometimes myocarditis recurs or produces chronic valvulitis (when it results from rheumatic fever), cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, and thromboembolism.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Pericarditis:
Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))
Acute pericarditis typically produces a sharp and often sudden pain that usually starts over the sternum and radiates to the neck, shoulders, back, and arms. However, unlike the pain of MI, pericardial pain is often pleuritic, increasing with deep inspiration and decreasing when the patient sits up and leans forward, pulling the heart away from the diaphragmatic pleurae of the lungs.
Pericardial effusion, the major complication of acute pericarditis, may produce effects of heart failure (such as dyspnea, orthopnea, and tachycardia), ill-defined substernal chest pain, and a feeling of fullness in the chest. (See Patterns of cardiac pain.)
Alert If the fluid accumulates rapidly, cardiac tamponade may occur, resulting in pallor, clammy skin, hypotension, pulsus paradoxus (a decrease in systolic blood pressure of 15 mm Hg or more during slow inspiration), jugular vein distention and, eventually, cardiovascular collapse and death.
Chronic constrictive pericarditis causes a gradual increase in systemic venous pressure and produces symptoms similar to those of chronic right-sided heart failure (fluid retention, ascites, and hepatomegaly).
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
Endocarditis:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Early clinical features of endocarditis are usually nonspecific and include malaise, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, anorexia, arthralgia, night sweats, chills, valvular insufficiency and, in 90% of patients, an intermittent fever that may recur for weeks. A more acute onset is associated with highly pathogenic organisms such as S. aureus.
Endocarditis commonly causes a loud, regurgitant murmur that’s typical of the underlying heart lesion. A suddenly changing murmur or the discovery of a new murmur in the presence of fever is a classic physical sign of endocarditis.
In about 30% of patients, embolization from vegetating lesions or diseased valvular tissue may produce the following features of splenic, renal, cerebral, or pulmonary infarction or peripheral vascular occlusion:
❑ splenic infarction: pain in the left upper quadrant, radiating to the left shoulder; abdominal rigidity
❑ renal infarction: hematuria, pyuria, flank pain, decreased urine output
❑ cerebral infarction: hemiparesis, aphasia, or other neurologic deficits
❑ pulmonary infarction (most common in right-sided endocarditis, which usually occurs in I.V. drug abusers and after cardiac surgery): cough, pleuritic pain, pleural friction rub, dyspnea, hemoptysis
❑ peripheral vascular occlusion: numbness and tingling in an arm or a leg, finger, or toe or signs of impending peripheral gangrene.
Other signs include splenomegaly; petechiae of the skin (especially common on the upper anterior trunk) and the buccal, pharyngeal, or conjunctival mucosa; and splinter hemorrhages under the nails. Rarely, endocarditis produces Osler’s nodes (tender, raised subcutaneous lesions on the fingers or toes), Roth’s spots (hemorrhagic areas with white centers on the retina), and Janeway’s lesions (purplish macules on the palms or soles).
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Myocarditis:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Myocarditis usually causes nonspecific symptoms — such as fatigue, dyspnea, palpitations, and fever — that reflect the accompanying systemic infection. Occasionally, it may produce mild, continuous pressure or soreness in the chest (unlike the recurring, stress-related pain of angina pectoris).
Although myocarditis is usually self-limiting, it may induce myofibril degeneration that results in right- and left-sided heart failure, with cardiomegaly, neck vein distention, dyspnea, persistent fever with resting or exertional tachycardia disproportionate to the degree of fever, and supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias.
Sometimes myocarditis recurs or produces chronic valvulitis (when it results from rheumatic fever), cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, and thromboembolism.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Pericarditis:
Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)
Clinical features vary in the acute and chronic forms.
Acute pericarditis
In acute pericarditis, a sharp and commonly sudden pain usually starts over the sternum and radiates to the neck, shoulders, back, and arms. However, unlike the pain of an MI, pericardial pain is often pleuritic, increasing with deep inspiration and decreasing when the patient sits up and leans forward, pulling the heart away from the diaphragmatic pleurae of the lungs.
Pericardial effusion, the major complication of acute pericarditis, may produce the effects of heart failure — such as dyspnea, orthopnea, and tachycardia — as well as ill-defined substernal chest pain and a feeling of fullness in the chest.
If the fluid accumulates rapidly, cardiac tamponade may occur, resulting in pallor, clammy skin, hypotension, paradoxical pulse (a decrease in systolic blood pressure equal to or greater than 10 mm Hg during slow inspiration), jugular vein distention and, eventually, cardiovascular collapse and death.
Chronic pericarditis
Chronic constrictive pericarditis causes a gradual increase in systemic venous pressure and produces symptoms similar to those of chronic right-sided heart failure (fluid retention, ascites, hepatomegaly).
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Pericarditis:
Pericarditis - signs & symptoms
(The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult)
- Most common:
- Precordial chest pain
- Fever
- Cough
- Shoulder pain aggravated by changes in position
- Rapid accumulation of fluid:
- Respiratory distress/dyspnea
- Signs of hypotension
- Change in mental status/loss of consciousness
- Pain: Often relieved if the child sits leaning forward
- Slow, chronic accumulation may be associated with no symptoms at all until tamponade develops.
- Other symptoms are dependent on the etiology of the pericarditis.
» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »
Source: The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult, 2008
Pericarditis as a Cause of Symptoms or Medical Conditions
When considering symptoms of Pericarditis, it is also important to consider Pericarditis as a possible cause of other medical conditions.
The Disease Database lists the following medical conditions that Pericarditis may cause:
- (Source - Diseases Database)
Pericarditis as a symptom:
For a more detailed analysis of Pericarditis as a symptom, including causes, drug side effect causes, and drug interaction causes, please see our Symptom Center information for Pericarditis.
Medical articles and books on symptoms:
These general reference articles may be of interest
in relation to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:
Full list of premium articles on symptoms and diagnosis
About signs and symptoms of Pericarditis:
The symptom information on this page
attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of Pericarditis.
This signs and symptoms information for Pericarditis has been gathered from various sources,
may not be fully accurate,
and may not be the full list of Pericarditis signs or Pericarditis symptoms.
Furthermore, signs and symptoms of Pericarditis may vary on an individual basis for each patient.
Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they
are indeed Pericarditis symptoms.
Heart failure affects approximately 5 million people in the United States. It can be caused by a number of conditions and treatment options may vary...
Heart trouble may sound like a click away if you have mitral valve prolapse (MVP). But this common misfiring in the heart is seldom serious. Learn...
Learn what factors may dictate whether you need treatment to prevent an infection in your heart.
"I authorize the release of any medical or other information necessary to process this claim." Do you recognize these words? You should, if...
See full list of 4 related videos
» Next page: Diagnostic Tests for Pericarditis
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