Post-vaccinial pericarditis and myocarditis.

Cardiac complications of smallpox vaccination have been reported in a small number of cases but are much less common than neurological or dermatological reactions. Cangemi reported a case of acute pericarditis occurring i6 days after primary vaccination in a 56-year-old man with apparent full recovery (Cangemi, I958). During the I962 smallpox outbreak, 3 cases of cardiac involvement after vaccination were reported (MacAdam and Whitaker, I962). At the same time a fatal case of acute myocarditis was reported in the Times (Mant, I962). Two other fatal cases have been described in English language journals (Dalgaard, I957; Finlay-Jones, I964). We wish to describe a case of pericarditis and myocarditis with cardiac failure occurring two weeks after primary vaccination.