title: [Diagnosis difficulty in occult constrictive pericarditis].
abstract: We report the case of a 42 years woman known to have a cardiac heart failure attributed to restrictive cardiomyopathy for want of any other plausible diagnosis. Evolution and repeted investigations finally permitted to rectify the diagnosis by revealing a constrictive pericarditis, remained occult 9 years during. The differentiation of restrictive cardiomyopathy and constrictive pericarditis has been a perennial problem in clinical cardiology. Diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis is based on associated signs sometimes too poor to go straight to thoracotomy. We discuss the mean to approach more precisely this uncommon pattern named occult constrictive pericarditis.
authors.affiliation: Service de maladies cardiovasculaires, hôpital cardiologique du Haut-Lévêque, Pessac. plmassoure@aol.com
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Massoure
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: le Bouffos
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Roubertie
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lafitte
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roudaut
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002313:Cardiomyopathy, Restrictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010494:Pericarditis, Constrictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging