Background: In literature it has been reported in 1998, for the first time, a case of a 54-year-old man who developed constrictive pericarditis (CP) 12 years after diagnosis of dermatomyositis (DM). To our knowledge, this may be the only case reported.
Case summary: A 16-year-old man presented to our institution because of symptoms posing a suspicion for an inflammatory disease; after physical examination, lab tests, and other investigations (electromyography, magnetic resonance, and muscular biopsy) was diagnosed as having DM. Patient also showed hepatomegaly and congested jugular veins: after clinical and imaging investigations (transthoracic echocardiography and transoesophageal echocardiography) he was diagnosed as having a CP. Patient underwent pericardial resection and the final outcome consisted of a completely regression of the symptoms.
Discussion: Cardiac involvement in patients with DM ranges between 6% and 75%, and it can be clinically manifest or, far more frequently, sub-clinic. Pericardial involvement as a complication of DM is widely reported in the literature, but in almost all cases as acute pericarditis, effusive pericarditis or cardiac tamponade and almost never as a CP.
Keywords: Case report; Dermatomyositis; Pericardial constriction; Pericarditis.
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.