Pericarditis, cardiac disease difficult to prevent

What is pericarditis?

It is an inflammation of the pericardium, the tissue surrounding the heart, which aims to facilitate the movement of cardiac contraction and relaxation.

What through which we can detect symptoms that suffer?

The most common symptom is chest pain, and can be quite similar to the pain caused by myocardial infarction, ie a heart attack. The main difference is that the pain is worse with deep breathing and position changes, worse when you are lying and improving to sit.

How is it diagnosed?

The main method for diagnosis is the electrocardiogram (ECG) because usually shows changes that establish the problem. The downside is that often, these alterations are also similar to those in patients with myocardial infarction, so it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate the two diseases, which is vitally important, because treatment is completely different.

What are its causes or risk factors? Can it be prevented?

There are many different causes that can cause pericarditis, unrelated. The most common are infections, usually by viruses that, after suffering a cold or a seemingly mild diarrhea, can "jump" to the pericardium, inflaming and triggering a picture of pericarditis. Another common cause of pericarditis also is cancer since when extended can affect the pericardium causing inflammation at this level.

Unlike other heart diseases, in most cases, pericarditis can not be prevented.

What is your treatment?

In Cardiology , treatment depends on the cause that provokes. Pericarditis occurs when an infection can be treated with anti-inflammatory. When the cause is cancer, treatment is typical of this disease and will be different depending on whether breast, lung or any other location. While in the latter case treatment options are often reduced because pericarditis usually indicates that the tumor is widespread and the prognosis is usually poor.

Edited by Roser Berner Ubasos.