Pericarditis (cont.)
What are the symptoms of
pericarditis?
Chest pain is the most common symptom of pericarditis.
- The pain is usually sharp and stabbing.
- It can arise slowly or suddenly and can radiate directly to the back, to the neck or to the arm.
- If there is associated irritation of the diaphragm (the flat muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen), the pain can radiate to the shoulder blade.
- The pain can be made worse with deep breaths (pleuritic).
- The pain is frequently positional and made worse when lying flat and better when leaning forward.
These pain characteristics may help the doctor distinguish between pain from pericardial inflammation around the heart and angina (the pain from heart muscle that doesn't get enough blood supply because of narrowed blood vessels).
The heart sits is the mediastinum, a space that exists in the middle of the
chest between the lungs. The trachea, the breathing tube from the mouth to the
lungs and the esophagus, the swallowing tube from the mouth to the stomach are
also located in the mediastinum. Some symptoms may depend upon where the
inflammation may be in the heart lining.
- There may be pain with deep breaths and
shortness of breath because of that pain, if there is inflammation in the pericardium near lung tissue.
- Pain may occur with swallowing if the inflammation is near the esophagus.
- Other symptoms depend upon the specific cause of the pericarditis. For example, infections may present with
fever, chills and other non-specific symptoms such as muscle aches and general malaise.
Next: How is pericarditis diagnosed? »
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