title: Clinical profile and influences on outcomes in patients hospitalized for acute pericarditis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The clinical profile with regard to sex and the influences on outcomes in patients who have been hospitalized for acute pericarditis is largely uncharacterized.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We studied all patients aged ≥16 years admitted to the hospital because of acute pericarditis (postpericardiotomy and myocardial infarction associated pericarditis were excluded). Data were collected from a Finnish national registry that included data on all cardiovascular admissions (670 409) during 9.5 years in 29 hospitals nationwide. During the study period, there were 1361 admissions for acute pericarditis. Pericarditis patients were more likely to be male (64.9% of patients) than female (35.1%), with an age-adjusted likelihood ratio of 1.85 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.65-2.06; P<0.0001) for male sex. The standardized incidence rate of hospitalizations for acute pericarditis was 3.32 per 100 000 person-years. Men 16 to 65 years of age were at higher risk for pericarditis (relative risk, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.81-2.26; P<0.0001) than women in the general admitted population, with the highest risk difference among young adults. Acute pericarditis caused 0.20% (95% CI, 0.19%-0.22%) of all cardiovascular admissions. The proportion of pericarditis-caused admissions declined by an estimated 51% per 10-year increase in age. The in-hospital mortality rate for acute pericarditis was 1.1% (95% CI, 0.6%-1.8%). Mortality increased with age (hazard ratio, 3.26; 95% CI, 1.78-5.95 per 10-year increase in age; P=0.0001) and severe coinfection (pneumonia or septicemia; hazard ratio, 13.46; 95% CI, 2.26-80.01; P<0.005) but was not associated with sex in multivariate analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients hospitalized for acute pericarditis are more commonly male. Increasing age and severe coinfection are associated with greater in-hospital mortality in hospitalized acute pericarditis patients.
authors.affiliation: From the Heart Center, (V.K.), Clinical Neurosciences, Neurology (J.S.), and Clinical Research Center (P.R.), Turku University Hospital, and PET Center (V.K.), Neurology (J.S.), and Public Health (P.R.), University of Turku, Turku, Finland. ville.kyto@utu.fi.
authors.forename: Ville
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kytö
authors.affiliation: From the Heart Center, (V.K.), Clinical Neurosciences, Neurology (J.S.), and Clinical Research Center (P.R.), Turku University Hospital, and PET Center (V.K.), Neurology (J.S.), and Public Health (P.R.), University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Jussi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sipilä
authors.affiliation: From the Heart Center, (V.K.), Clinical Neurosciences, Neurology (J.S.), and Clinical Research Center (P.R.), Turku University Hospital, and PET Center (V.K.), Neurology (J.S.), and Public Health (P.R.), University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Päivi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rautava
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010493:Pericarditis / Q000401:mortality*; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: aging; epidemiology; pericarditis; sex