Diagnosis

Your doctor will review your medical history, especially any history of recent viral infection, heart attack, chest trauma, chest surgery, tuberculosis, kidney disease, rheumatic disease or collagen vascular disorder. Your doctor also will ask you to describe your chest pain, including its location, what triggers it (cough, swallowing, deep breath), how long it lasts and what relieves it.

Your doctor will examine you, using a stethoscope to listen for a characteristic grating, leathery sound that can appear in patients with pericarditis. This sound is called a pericardial friction rub. Other tests that can give your doctor further evidence of pericarditis include:

• An electrocardiogram (EKG)

• An echocardiogram, a painless scan that uses sound waves to delineate structures in and around the heart

• A simple chest X-ray

• Amagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scan, needed in some cases to look for changes in the pericardium

If a pericardial effusion has developed, a sample of the fluid may be drawn off (aspirated) from around your heart with a sterile needle and examined in a laboratory. Also, depending on the suspected cause of the pericarditis, you may need a skin test for tuberculosis or additional blood testing to look for signs of infection, heart attack, rheumatic illness or collagen vascular disease.

Expected Duration

In some forms of pericarditis, especially those caused by most viral infections, heart attack or chest trauma, symptoms usually subside in one month or less. In other forms of pericarditis (uremic, rheumatic, collagen vascular disease), the condition can be long-term.