title: Unusual presentation of idiophatic chronic constrictive pericarditis.
abstract: A 55-year-old male patient presented in our service with progressive dyspnea and ascitis beginning 1 year and 8 months previously. He weighed 160 kg (normal weight 95 kg), with ascitis and orthopnea. On admission he presented normal echocardiograms. An electrocardiogram showed diffuse inverted T waves. An endomyocardial biopsy was not elucidative. A new echocardiogram confirmed a very thick pericardium. Surgical pericardial resection was indicated. The postoperative period was uneventful with complete remission of symptoms. The anatomopathological analysis was normal. The pericarditis was classified as idiopathic. This case is a warning for the need of much suspicion in patients with apparent causeless voluminous ascitis.
authors.affiliation: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery Department in the Medical School in São José do Rio Preto (FAMERP). mfgodoy@netsite.com.br
authors.forename: Moacir Fernandes de
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Godoy
authors.forename: Fábio Barros de
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Francischi
authors.forename: Paulo Roberto
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Pavarino
authors.forename: Marcos Aurélio Barboza de
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Marcelo José Ferreira
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Domingo Marcolino
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Braile
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010492:Pericardiectomy; D010494:Pericarditis, Constrictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery