Echo-Bright Pericardium in Recurrent Idiopathic Pericarditis

TL;DR

A case of recurrent idiopathic pericarditis showed a bright pericardium on echocardiogram during a follow-up episode.

Contribution

Reports a rare TTE finding of a bright pericardium during a recurrent episode of idiopathic pericarditis.

Findings

Bright pericardium was observed on TTE during a recurrent episode of idiopathic pericarditis.

The patient had typical symptoms and elevated inflammatory markers at initial diagnosis.

The bright pericardium was not prominent during the initial presentation but appeared in the recurrence.

Abstract

Various radiological findings are observed in acute pericarditis, including pericardial thickening, pericardial effusion, and elevated filling pressures on transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE); thickened pericardium on cardiac CT; edematous pericardium depicted in T2 black-blood/short tau inversion recovery (STIR) images; and enhancement with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac MRI. However, the presence of a bright pericardium on TTE has seldom been reported. We report a case of acute pericarditis, diagnosed in a young female patient based only on typical chest pain and elevated inflammatory markers. Initially negligible, a bright pericardium was prominent on the recurrent episode after one year of the initial presentation.

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