Pericarditis happens precipitously and can cause fibrin, white blood cells, red blood cells or other blood components along with fluid to enter the pericardium. Among the various causes of pericarditis, infection is the prime. Usually viral, fungal, bacterial, tuberculosis and some other micro-organism infections are prone to cause pericarditis. Otherwise, chest injury, heart attack or lung cancer can lead a person to pericarditis also. Few of the inner city hospitals have reported that AIDS is also a reason of this disease and but in India and Africa, the majority falls sick due to tuberculosis.
Can Pericarditis Cause A Fever?
The common symptoms of pericarditis are fever and chest pain. It is observed that the fever or pain in this disease does not stay at a particular body part. It can change its location occasionally and because of that a forbearing may experience heart attack. The fluid and blood creates a pressure on the heart by accumulating in the spacing of pericarditis and thus, pumping of blood goes restricted. Additionally, pericarditis due to tuberculosis is gradual and it may lead to fever. Fatigue, weakness and difficulty in breathing are the symptoms of heart failure and cardiac tamponade is the later stage. Pericarditis that occurs after 10 days to 2 months after heart attack comes along with Dressler syndrome. This condition involves pericardial effusion, fever, pain caused by the inflammation, joint pain and pleural effusion (release of fluid between pleura’s two layers).
The diagnosis options available to treat pericarditis are chest x-ray, electrocardiography and echocardiography. Doctors, in most of the cases, diagnose a patient’s acute pericarditis by observing the sounds coming from chest audible through stethoscope and judging by the person’s description of pain. The sound perceived from chest is similar to the creaking of leather shoe. And this sound determines when to have diagnosis. Apart from all of this, knowing the cause of pericarditis is compulsion. Which is mostly the heart attack, but in some cases the cause detected by blood test are AIDS, leukemia, rheumatic fever and increase in urea level in blood. And, unfortunately, if the cause remains unknown then some amount of pericardial fluid is taken out as sample and sent to testing team.
Despite of the cause, doctors hospitalize the patient if the patient is with high risk feature like fever, sub-acute onset, recent trauma and use of immunosuppressive drugs. In these situations, anti-inflammatory drugs such as colchicines are given to the patient, but in extreme cases of chest pain, morphine is the solution. Once there is some reduction of fluid or pain is witnessed, the drugs are started to cut off. For a kidney patient, this pericarditis treatment is different. In this scenario, increase in the amount of frequency of dialysis is recommended which will automatically lead to improvement in pericarditis condition.
Similarly, for cancer patients, the pericarditis treatment comes with different face called chemotherapy or radiation therapy. If pericarditis is a result of virus, fever or injury, ibuprofen or aspirin along with colchicines are best options to fight back. Moreover, corticosteroids can be injected directly into the pericardial space. And the last option left out is surgery. In this, fluid is sucked out from pericardial space via catheter. Alternatively, a small slit is made just down the breast bone and pericardium is taken out. This procedure is often executed when a bacterial infection is detected and in medical terms it is known as subxiphoid pericardiotomy.
All in all, it is possible to get caught by fever due to pericarditis. But a person should not worry too much when spectate the symptoms of pericarditis. Just consult a doctor and follow the doctor words. It can be cured easily with few precautions. On your end, just try to stay healthy and keep your chest and heart safe.
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