Pericarditis, which may have affected Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, is an inflammation of the pericardium, or the double membrane that surrounds the heart and is similar to a sac.
There are four main causes that can determine it.
It is a pathology with a benign course if well treated.
The patient, however, may experience relapses.
Among the symptoms is chest pain: 5% of emergency room visits with this symptom, explain the experts at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome where there is a dedicated clinic, are due to pericarditis.
The first warning sign of pericarditis is a strong pain in the front part of the chest, which can also radiate to the shoulder and left arm and which greatly alarms the patient, who thinks he is having a heart attack.
"But the pain of pericarditis typically subsides if the patient sits with the torso tilted forward, while it becomes more pronounced when lying down - explains Laura Gerardino, medical director of the Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine Unit, contact person for the Recurrent Pericarditis Clinic - CEMI of Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli Irccs - The patient with pericarditis may also have a feeling of 'air hunger' (dyspnoea) from exertion, palpitations and sometimes even fever which perhaps returns after recovering from a recent viral infection , like flu or Covid".
In the presence of these symptoms, he explains, the patient must immediately have an electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram which allow us to see whether, in addition to the inflammation of the pericardial sheets, an effusion has occurred, i.e. liquid between the two sheets themselves: this is a emergency that requires immediate intervention.
As for the causes, pericarditis is often preceded by a viral or bacterial disease, it can be linked to an autoimmune disease or previous operations on the heart, but in 70% of cases a real cause cannot be found.
This disease, "if well treated - reassures Gerardino - has a benign course but is often characterized by a high frequency of relapses. These so-called 'recurrent' pericarditis occur mainly in idiopathic forms, i.e. those without a known cause".
In terms of possible therapies, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or aspirin are used to 'turn off' pericarditis, which should be started at high doses and then slowly reduced.
Furthermore, the prevention of relapses, states Gerardino, "passes through the prescription of an additional drug, colchicine".
If the patient does not respond to anti-inflammatory therapy, corticosteroids can be used in some cases.
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