Disturbances of the Heart / Discussion of the Treatment of the Heart in Its Various Disorders, With a Chapter on Blood Pressure

by Oliver T. Osborne

PERICARDITIS

ACUTE PERICARDITIS

As this inflammation is generally secondary to some other condition, its treatment cannot be positively outlined. Furthermore, it is often a terminal condition, and in such instances the results of treatment are of necessity nil. The most frequent terminal cause is nephritis; other terminal causes are pulmonary tuberculosis, adjacent abscesses, cancer or other growth.

The most frequent infectious cause is rheumatism; other infectious causes are cerebrospinal fever, typhoid fever, acute miliary tuberculosis, pneumonia and Sepsis. Accidental causes are traumatism and an adjacent inflammation of the pleura.

The result of an inflammation of the pericardium may be a fibrous exudate, or an exudate which is both serous and fibrous, or one in which pus is present in considerable amount.

The onset of pericarditis may be more or less acute, or it may commence insidiously. For this reason, during severe illness, and especially in those diseases which are known to have pericarditis often as a sequence, frequent examination of the heart should be made as a routine procedure.