Dressler's syndrome after meningococcalmyopericarditis

Abstract

Myopericarditis is well described in systemic meningococcal infections; in a review of 200 fatal cases, histological evidence of myocardial infiltration with inflammatory cells was found in 78% (l). Primary meningococcal myopericarditis is rare and usually associated with serotype C (2-8). Immediate complications such as cardiac tamponade (3-5), acute (7) renal failure (6), panophthalmitis (7), and reactive and suppurative arthritis have been reported, but the late complication of Dressler's syndrome seems not to have been described.