title: A case of recurrent pericardial constriction presenting with severe pulmonary hypertension.
abstract: Chronic constrictive pericarditis (CP) is a relatively rare condition in which the pericardium becomes fibrotic and noncompliant, eventually resulting in heart failure due to impaired ventricular filling. The only curative treatment is pericardiectomy. Classically, CP does not usually cause severe pulmonary hypertension. When attempting to differentiate CP from restrictive cardiomyopathy, the presence of severely elevated pulmonary arterial pressure is used as a diagnostic criterion ruling against CP. We present a case of proven recurrent pericardial constriction following pericardiectomy presenting with severe pulmonary hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA ; Vera Moulton Wall Center for Pulmonary Vascular Disease, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Brunner
authors.forename: Krithika
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ramachandran
authors.forename: Kristina T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Kudelko
authors.forename: Yon K
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Edda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Spiekerkoetter
authors.forename: Phillip C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Roham T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Zamanian
authors.forename: Vinicio de Jesus
authors.initials: Vde J
authors.lastname: Perez
keywords: constrictive pericarditis; heart failure; pericardiectomy; pulmonary hypertension