Pericardial Disease

Question 1

What are the four most common causes of pericarditis?

Answer 1

Viral illness, connective tissue disease, metastatic cancer, and uremia

Question 2

What are the signs and symptoms of acute pericarditis?

Answer 2

Sudden onset of chest pain that varies with position or breathing; response to anti-inflammatory drugs; diffuse ST elevation on EKG; pericardial rub; and pericardial effusion on echo

Question 3

What are the five most common identifiable causes of pericardial effusion?

Answer 3

Viral illness, metastatic cancer, uremia, autoimmune disease, and hypothyroidism

Question 4

Describe the difference between X-ray findings of right-sided heart failure and pericardial tamponade.

Answer 4

In right-sided heart failure, the heart will cast a large shadow and the lungs will accumulate fluid; in pericardial tamponade, the heart is enlarged but the lungs do not accumulate fluid because.

Question 5

Constrictive pericarditis can result from __________.

Answer 5

surgery, radiation, infection, or it can be idiopathic

Question 6

The filling pressures of constrictive pericarditis display the _______ sign.

Answer 6

square-root

Question 7

Those with constrictive pericarditis tend to have _______ blood pressure.

Answer 7

low

Question 8

Tamponade will cause _________ heart sounds.

Answer 8

distant

Question 9

Tamponade tends to develop more quickly than constrictive pericarditis, so edema is more common in _________.

Answer 9

constrictive pericarditis

Question 10

What is a paradoxical pulse and in what syndromes does it develop?

Answer 10

Inspiratory decrease in arterial pressure; tamponade

Question 11

The inferior vena cava normally collapses during inspiration, but it will not do so in patients with __________.

Answer 11

tamponade