Background
Constrictive pericarditis is a clinical entity with many causes. After blunt trauma is a rare initiating cause. We report the case of a young man developing constrictive pericarditis after blunt chest trauma, so as to show an accurate diagnosis of this clinical entity and to increase awareness of the possibility of this condition developing after blunt trauma.
Case presentation
A 21-year-old man presented initially to our outpatient clinic with a seven-month history of progressively worsening dyspnea, and recent onset of edema of the legs and ascites. Echocardiography showed evidence of pericardial constriction, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed asymmetric focal thickening of the pericardium. Hence, pericarditis or malignancy were suspected. Examination of the diagnosis of pericarditis, as acute and chronic inflammation and thickening were found, with no evidence of malignancy. Our patient underwent cardiac catheterization, which revealed one-vessel coronary artery disease due to external press of focal pericardial thickening. Excluding other common factors, we thought that our patient had previously a blunt trauma to his chest was the potential cause of the constrictive pericarditis.
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