clinical features
Last reviewed 01/2018
Chest pain is the most characteristic symptom:
- sharp and well localized
- relieved by leaning forward
- sometimes pain may radiate to left shoulder, or down the arm or into the abdomen
- there may be a pleuritic element - pleuropericarditis
Possible signs include:
- a pericardial rub, heard at the left sternal edge, and may be transient
- signs of right ventricular failure, for example dependent oedema
- pulsus paradoxus
- Kussmaul's sign