title: [Pericarditis: a giant cell arteritis manifestation].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Temporal arteritis is a vasculitis in which inflammatory manifestations mainly involve the external carotid artery area but not exclusively. Through a clinical observation and a review of the literature, we suggest that inflammatory pericarditis could represent a manifestation of temporal arteritis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 75-year-old-woman was admitted for progressive physical deterioration which had been evolving for three months, associated with fever, frontotemporal cephalalgia and severe biological inflammatory syndrome. Chest X-ray reveals a cardiomegaly and suggests a pericarditis, which was rapidly confirmed by echocardiogram. Temporal artery biopsy concludes to the diagnosis of a giant cell arteritis. Steroids treatment is prescribed, leading to a rapid regression of the inflammatory state and the pericarditis without relapse after 6 months of follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Only prospective studies on systematic echocardiography when faced with the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis, whatever clinical symptoms, will enable to appreciate the prevalence and prognosis value of this manifestation. Moreover, temporal artery analysis seems to be justified when faced with a sub-acute or chronic "idiopathic" inflammatory pericarditis occurring in the elderly patient. Physiopathogeny is unknown but some hypothesis can be proposed: inflammatory cytokines storm, immune complexes deposition, giant cell vasculitis of pericardial arteries or inflammatory interstitial lesion of the pericardium with or without granuloma.
authors.affiliation: Service de médecine interne, hôpital Nord, Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille (APHM), chemin des Bourrelys, 13915 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guindon
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bagneres
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aissi
authors.forename: A-L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Demoux
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonin-Guillaume
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cloarec
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giraud
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Timponne
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Le Dolley
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fenerol
authors.forename: J-P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Dales
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Frances
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Granel
mesh_terms: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D013700:Giant Cell Arteritis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D010493:Pericarditis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones