Tuberculous pericarditis on autopsy: A case report

Tuberculous (TB) pericarditis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is found in approximately 1% of all autopsied cases of TB and in 1-2% of pulmonary TB [1]. Although there has been a significant decline in TB in developed countries over last decades, Asia, Africa and Latin America, with 86% of the World’s population are home to 95% of all cases of active TB and 98% of the nearly 2 million deaths resulting from TB each year [2]. Pericardial involvement by TB was initially described by Rokitansky in 1852, and it was he who noted the “association with, and dependence upon,” an earlier TB lesion [3]. TB pericarditis has a variable clinical presentation and should be considered in the evaluation of all cases of pericarditis without a rapidly self-limited course [4]. TB pericarditis by no means always progresses to the constrictive fibrous stage [3]. In some parts of the world, a TB cause of constrictive pericarditis is more common than a non TB cause [5]. Recent reviews on the diagnosis and management of pericardial disease have paid scant attention to TB pericarditis, which is arguably the leading cause of pericarditis in the world [6,7]. TB pericarditis in an 82-year-old female diagnosed on autopsy is presented herewith.