Childhood myocarditis and pericarditis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13112/pc.1087Keywords:
MYOCARDITIS; CHILD; PERICARDITIS; ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY; MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGINGAbstract
Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the middle, muscular part of the heart in which inflammation of heart cells leads to temporary or permanent damage with consequent loss of function, which is clinically manifested by heart failure and/or arrhythmia. It is considered a rare disease, although the incidence is unknown because most cases with milder clinical symptoms are not recognized. The clinical presentation is very diverse, from very mild, asymptomatic cases to heart failure and cardiogenic shock. Diagnosis is based on the history and clinical findings, elevated inflammatory and cardiac biomarkers in serum, and imaging tests, where ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging of the heart play key roles. The therapeutic approach depends on the hemodynamic abnormalities in the patient. Pericarditis is an inflammation of the visceral and parietal pericardium and is not a common disease in children. Although data on the incidence of the disease in the general population are scarce, it is believed that it is 30-150/100,000 per year. It causes chest pain in <0.2 to 5 % of children who present to the emergency department without prior heart disease. Pericarditis can present clinically as acute, recurrent, or chronic. It is treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, recurrent with corticosteroids and colchicine, and increasingly, in resistant forms, biological immunomodulatory therapy is also used.
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