Long-term echocardiographic follow-up of a patient with constrictive pericarditis treated with antituberculosis drugs and pericardiectomy

Abstract

A middle-aged man presented to the Department of Medicine of our hospital due to exertional dyspnoea, ascites and peripheral oedema. He was later transferred to the Department of Heart Disease as his echocardiography indicated constrictive pericarditis, confirmed by cardiac MRI and cardiac catheterisation. After a thorough investigation, his constrictive pericarditis was assumed to be caused by tuberculosis. He was treated with antituberculosis therapy followed by successful surgical subtotal pericardiectomy, leading to immediate improvement of haemodynamics, regression of symptoms and recovery of cardiac function. The patient remained stable at 5-year echocardiographic follow-up with no evidence of diastolic dysfunction.