A study aimed to characterize disease burden and unmet needs in recurrent pericarditis (RP). The results were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
In this retrospective U.S. database analysis, researchers assessed 2,096 newly diagnosed patients with RP with ≥24 months of continuous history following their first pericarditis episode. In this study, RP was defined as two or more pericarditis episodes 28 days or more apart. The researchers noted that some patients had two or more recurrences, while others had a single recurrence with a serious complication. In the subpopulation of patients with multiple recurrences and/or complications, some had features relating to treatment history, including long-term corticosteroid use, or inadequate treatment response.
Of the study population, 60% had hypertension, 9% had cardiomegaly, 17% congestive heart failure, 16% had atrial fibrillation, 18% had autoimmune diseases, 21% had diabetes mellitus, 20% had renal disease, 21% had anxiety, and 14% had depression. Complications from RP included pericardial effusion (50%), cardiac tamponade (9%), and constrictive pericarditis (4%).
“Patients with RP may have multiple recurrences and/or complications, often because of inadequate treatment response and persistent underlying disease,” the researchers concluded.
Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34284595/
Keywords: database analysis, epidemiology, pericarditis, recurrent pericarditis
