The Electrocardiogram in Constrictive Pericarditis before and after Radical Pericardectomy

Abstract

The electrocardiographic findings of 18 patiente with chronic constrictive pericarditis and their progress 16 to 80 months following radical pericardectomy were studied. Atrial fibrillation, abnormal P waves, right QRS axis deviation, low QRS complex voltage in the conventional leads as well as T wave inversion, were the common preoperative electrocardiographic findings. Following radical pericardectomy restoration of the P wave abnormalities to normal was noted in eight out of 11 patients. QRS complex voltage in general increased and in the majority of patients the AQRS was moved to the left. Restoration of the T wave changes to normal was ascertained in 14 patients and it was accompanied always by an excellent clinical result and hemodynamic restoration to normal in the nine recatheterized patients. Persistence, however, of abnormal T waves might be accompanied by an excellent clinical result as it was observed in two of our patients, in one of whom recatheterization showed restoration of intracardiac pressures to normal.