I have recently been diagnosed with constrictive pericarditis by a cardiologist at a VA hospital but after reading about
the symptoms others experience, I am not convinced that I have it.
I have a localized feeling of pressure to the left of midline which occasionally radiates down and across the midline to the right. CT scan shows moderate pulmonary effusion with some abdominal perfusion. I occasionally have edema in the calves of both legs and my abdomen but it is relieved rather quickly with Bumex. If I lie on my back, all the symptoms disappear until I sit or stand up. The pressure increases porportionally with the amout of fluids I have retained. I do not have distended juglars nor the percardial knock usually found in CP. I do tire easily and have some difficulty breathing which I assume is due to the pulmonary edema. What I remember most is that I have had this same pressure feeling and edema since I woke up from triple bypass surgery two and a half years ago. That is, it didn't develop over time but was there from the begining. On May 4, I had a left side/right side heart cath and the doctor informed me I had constrictive percarditis. He was a cardiologist but not a surgeon and referred me to the Cardiology Department at Emory University in Atlanta. I only got vague answers there about the "risks outweigh the benefits" and was referred back to the cardiology unit in Charleston. No one has ever mentioned seeing any calcification on x-rays and it wasn't mentioned in a recent CT scan. If anyone has any information that may confirm this at CP or implies it may be something else please let me know. I do have the cardinal symptoms of Class III pulmonary hypertension, however, measurements in my pulmonary arteries revealed normal pulmonary pressures. I have had echos, nuclear stress tests and pulmonary function tests and nothing was mentioned about CP until this last heart cath.
Thanks much for taking the time to read this.
Les