Pericarditis as a Primary Clinical Manifestation of Tuberculosis in Childhood

Abstract

CHICAGOPericarditis as the first clinical manifestation of active tuberculosis in childhood is rare. A careful review of the literature failed to reveal the report of such a case diagnosed during life.Waller 1 reported a case in which postmortem examination showed that the pericarditis was tuberculous ; tuberculous pericarditis as a postmortem observation is not a great rarity.2 Many cases of chronic phthisis reveal an adhesive pericarditis at autopsy, and in generalized miliary tuberculosis the pericardium is not infrequently involved along with other serous membranes. Norris 3 collected data on 1,780 cases of tuberculosis from various hospitals ; eighty-two cases of tuberculous pericarditis were found, thirty-two in which there were actual tubercles, and forty-nine in which tubercles or any other demonstrable etiology was not found. Machlachlan4 reviewed 975 autopsies in which 100 cases of pericardial involvement of one type or another were included; ten per cent of these were on a tuberculous basis. Wells 5 made a study of 1,048 autopsies made on adults with a view to determine the pathogenesis of healed fibrous adhesions of the pericardium. He found inflammatory changes in the pericardium in 128, while fifty-seven presented chronic inflammatory changes which had resulted in fibrous adhesions joining the two layers. The remaining seventy-one of the number examined had had an acute condition. In eight patients the condition had been of the chronic type on a rheumatic basis; in six.

A Survey of Tuberculosis in Schools in Colorado

“…Overweight was noted more frequently among the children reacting positively. Blatt,5 Friedman,3 Green and one of us (R. P. F.)6 and others previously noted this dissociation between tuberculous infection in childhood and the state of nutrition.…”

Tuberculous Pericarditis in Childhood: A Case Report and a Systematic Literature Review

“…TBP has historically been considered “a disease of adult males” [ 11 ], and its occurrence in childhood has been found to be rare [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ].…”