Pericarditis

[Chris-h]

Has anyone had recurring pericarditis? I've suffered for a number of years and been told conflicting views from, It has nothing to do with BD, to, Its an unusual but recognised condition of BD.

[belle623]

Hi Cherish

Yes, I have. My cardiologist, BD specialist @ NYU and rheumatologist all agree it is from my BD. Inflammation is tricky and diagnosising BD symptoms/effects are like catching smoke unfortunately.

I hope you feel better soon!

Ash

[Chris-h in reply to belle623]

I took colchicine last year until my guts complained but it does seem to have had a lasting effect. I was interested to read that others seem to have had good results with colchicine for other symptoms.

[belle623 in reply to Chris-h]

Oh yes! Colchine does have great success for BD patients. As does Azothioprine.

[juliebover]

I've had recurrent pericarditis and also myocarditis. Have been left with heart failure. I too was told nothing to do with BD but I've read literature and it's a recognised problem.

[Hidden]

I am under investigation for fast hearbeat and low oxygen. I was thought to have angina but tests were negative. This is being done by local Cardiologist as BD docs have dismissed it as insignificant and not related to BD. NHS choices list autoimmune conditions as a possible cause of pericarditis nhs.uk/Conditions/Pericardi...

[Hidden]

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[Marushka-k]

Yes, pericaditis was one of my first symptoms, 3 years before i got a diagnosed. My first episode was severe, had 1cm of fluid at the front and 2cm at the back of my heart. Was in hospital for a while, tooks me months and months to get back to normal.

I've had it a few times since, but as soon as I got the very early symtpoms (pressure on chest when lying back or bending forward, etc), i would increase my prednisone (by a lot) for a few days, then wean down.

It got confusing when i had a pulmonary embolism (after surgery for hip replacement), and i thought it was pericarditis...

I was under the impression that pericaditis is recognised as a symptom of B, but only about 10% get it.

[jzeis]

Hi Chris-H,

Here's a medical journal review article about heart problems (including pericarditis) in Behcet's: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Here's the reference:

Demirelli S, Degirmenci H, Inci S, Arisoy A.

Cardiac manifestations in Behcet's disease.

Intractable Rare Dis Res. 2015 May;4(2):70-5. doi:10.5582/irdr.2015.01007.

Review. PubMed PMID: 25984424; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4428189.

[AusBehcets]

It's in my family history but I don't know if family had Behcet's or Lupus or?

Myocarditis/Pericarditis/Influenza post childbirth.

Pulmonary embolism post childbirth.

Coronary occlusion.

I've experienced pericardial effusion episode. Not sure why. Don't have diagnosis yet of Behcet's... have other diagnoses.

[UKADMIN Partner Behcet's Syndrome Society]

Hi Chris-h here is our Factsheet on Behcet's and the heart, hope the information is helpful: behcets.org.uk/wp-content/u...