The immunopathogenesis of tuberculous pericarditis

Tuberculous pericarditis.

BACKGROUND The incidence of tuberculous pericarditis is increasing in Africa as a result of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic. The primary objective of this article was to review and summarize the literature on the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management of tuberculous pericarditis. METHODS AND RESULTS We searched MEDLINE (January 1966 to May 2005) and the Cochrane Library (Issu...

Tuberculous Pericarditis

White (1937) however state that it is not so rare as is generally supposed. MacCallum (1928) states that tubercle bacillus is one of the common causative organisms in cases of pericarditis and Wells (1901, 1902) to whose work Pyrah and Pain referred states that he found 10 cases of tuberculous pericarditis in 1,048 autopsies. Incidence in India is not known to the writer but presumably it is hi...

Tuberculous pericarditis.

Melioidosis pericarditis mimicking tuberculous pericarditis.

Cases of melioidosis (N = 2) and tuberculous pericarditis (N = 33) during 1996-2006 were reviewed. Clinical presentations were similar, but pericardial pathological findings were not. Nine of 12 patients with melioidosis required pericardectomy. In areas where these diseases are endemic, pericardial fluid culture and pericardial biopsy can differentiate between melioidosis and tuberculosis.

The Treatment of Tuberculous Pericarditis

Twenty-seven patients with clinically primary tuberculous pericarditis were treated with prolonged chemotherapy consisting of intermittent doses of streptomycin and daily doses of paraminosalicylic acid or isoniazid. Twenty-one patients did well and were symptom-free six months to three years later. Five, one of whom died, developed constrictive pericarditis. Another died of widely disseminated...