I was unaware of what pericarditis was and how it was related to rheumatoid arthritis until I thought I was having a heart attack. One night last year, a pain in my chest really scared me, I thought, this is "the big one". I got my neighbor out of bed and she called the EMT's. When they arrived, they said that it didn't appear to be a heart attack but took me to the ER anyway. I spent the night in the hospital under observation and they dealt with my pain with pain killers. The cardiologist who checked me over the next morning read my information, noted that I took methotrexate and asked how severe my RA was. After I told him about it, he told me about pericarditis.

It is basically an inflamation of the pericardia, the "sack" that encloses the heart. There are a number of good links on the web for information on this, and a number about Pericarditis and Rheumatoid arthritis.

To deal with it when it flares up, I was told to take 1000 MG of aspirin and sit up either in a chair or in bed until the pain passes. If I didn't have any shooting pains down the left arm or other signs of a heart attack, I should realize it is pericarditis. While not a small thing in its own right, it is less threatening than the "real thing" , unless it persists. I've had a couple more flares of this kind since but the use of aspirin and rest as recommended seems to put me right in a few hours. At this time, I can't tie it to having a bad flare up in the joints, but I guess the inflammation is similar.

Just a FYI and hope this information is valuable to others.