OP-136 CLINICAL ANALYSIS OF 204 CASES WITH ACUTE RHEUMATIC FEVER

Abstract

Objective: This retrospective study aimed to identify clinical findings, etiologies, diagnosis, treatments and prognosis of 316 patients (age range:1 month-18 years) with pericarditis. Methods: The patients with echocardiographically detected pericarditis were admitted to our center between 1996 and 2008. These patients were reviewed according to physical examinations, blood chemistry results, microbiological, radiological and cardiological studies. Results: The mean age was 7.5±4.3 years. There were 156 (49.3%) boys and 160 (50.7%) girls. Although the most common symptoms were dyspnea (58.8%), fever (51.2%), chest pain (39.8%) and cough (35.1%), the physical examination revealed tachypnea (50.9%), hepatomegaly (44.9%), fever (39.5%), murmur (38.9%), tachycardia (34.1%), peripheral edema (21.8%), distant heart sounds (16.7%), ascites (15.2%) and frotman (5.6%). The most frequent causes of the pericarditis were viral/idiopathic (22.2%), malignancy (18.3%) and cardiac diseases (15.5%). Anemia was detected in 54.1% of patients. Cardiomegaly was seen in 55.7% of the cases.Echocardiographic study showed mild pericardial effusion in 45.9% of the patients. Twenty-seven (45%) of 60 patients (19%) who underwent pericardiosentesis had purulent pericarditis. In addition to medical treatment, dialysis, pericardial tube drainage and pericardiectomy were performed in 35, 25, and 7 patients,respectively. Ten patients developed constrictive pericarditis. Conclusions: We emphasized that early diagnosis and treatment is very important in patients who have signs and symptoms of pericarditis.Also echocardiography is essential for the diagnosis. Our study demonstrated that the viral/idiopatic etiology is the most common cause of pericarditis. We considered that improvement of socioeconomic status, preventive health care services, and effective antibiotherapy can decrease the prevalence of the pericarditis.