Jemds.com Case Report
J Evolution Med Dent Sci / eISSN - 2278-4802, pISSN - 2278-4748 / Vol. 10 / Issue 31 / Aug. 02, 2021 Page 2532
Pericarditis in Covid 19 - An Unusual Presentation
Abhijit Wadekar
1
, Sanyauta Hepat
2
, Sourya Acharya
3
, Sunil Kumar
4
1, 2, 3, 4
Department of General Medicine, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha, Maharashtra, India.
Corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19) infection causing the current pandemic began
as a cluster of cases in Wuhan Province of China which has now progressed to the
current dangerously exponential rise of billions of cases all over the world.
1
COVID-
19 virus is a single stranded RNA virus having zoonotic origin. It’s ability to cause
cross infection is the reason for the current devastating pandemic.
2
Adding to that,
COVID-19 is also called as novel corona virus as such a strain of virus had never
affected mankind before. The spectrum of infection is also quite interesting. Cases
range from asymptomatic, mild infections having cold, cough and fever, to life
threatening instances of acute respiratory failure requiring ventilator support and
intensive care admission.
3
With fewer treatment options available, vaccination in the
pipeline, the major mode of management is symptomatic treatment. Higher
antibiotics, immunity stimulant drugs, oxygen supplementation currently form the
mainstay of treatment. The management of Covid-19 still remains us shooting in the
dark, exploring for ground-breaking options which prevent mortality and morbidity.
Another lesser explored facet of the Covid-19 infection, is its ability to rapidly
disseminate in the body and not be restricted just to the respiratory system. This
rapid dissemination is the reason for the multi-systemic involvement in extreme
cases of Covid-19.
4
There have been reported cases of Covid-19 along with
neurological and cardiovascular involvement. The cardiovascular involvement can
also range from chest pain and palpitations to emergencies like cardiac tamponade
and cardiac failure. As the aetiology and complete progression of this disease is yet to
be fully understood, such cases with multi-systemic involvement pose imminent
challenges in treatment and management.
5
Here, we are presenting a case of 29-year-old male Covid positive patient, who
presented with chest pain and tachycardia and diagnosed as pericarditis.
A 29-year-old male patient came to the casualty with complains of fever and outside
reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) Covid-19 positive report,
and was admitted in Covid positive ward with stable vitals of pulse 78/min, BP
100/70 mg. Patient was started with standardized Covid-19 treatment protocol. On
3rd day of admission, patient started complaining of chest pain which was diffuse in
nature, pain was worse on laying down and was relieved on sitting and leaning
forward. On examination, patient had heart rate of 130/min. Auscultation revealed a
pericardial rub with a diastolic and pre systolic component just inside the apical area.
Electrocardiography (ECG) was done showing ST segment elevation with PR
depression in most of the leads as per Fig. 1.
DISCUSSION OF MANAGEMENT
2D Echo was done which was suggestive of mild to moderate pericardial effusion.
With these findings, patient was diagnosed with pericarditis and was started with
colchicine 0.5 mg twice a day and ibuprofen 400 mg twice a day after which patient
showed dramatic improvement and by 7
Th
day, patient was symptomatically relieved
and was discharged later after.
Corresponding Author:
Dr. Sourya Acharya,
Department of General Medicine,
AVBRH, Sawangi, Wardha,
Maharashtra, India.
E-mail: souryaacharya74@gmail.com
DOI: 10.14260/jemds/2021/519
How to Cite This Article:
Wadekar A, Hepat S, Acharya S, et al.
Pericarditis in Covid-19 an unusual
presentation. J Evolution Med Dent Sci
2021;10(31):2532-2534, DOI:
10.14260/jemds/2021/519
Submission 20-04-2021,
Peer Review 03-07-2021,
Acceptance 09-07-2021,
Published 02-08-2021.
Copyright © 2021 Abhijit Wadekar et al.
This is an open access article distributed
under Creative Commons Attribution
License [Attribution 4.0 International (CC
BY 4.0)]
INTRODUCTION
PRESENTATION OF CASE