A case of treatment of chronic constrictive pericarditis of tuberculous etiology

An observation from practice is given tuberculous constrictive pericarditis, which has been occurring for a long time with symptoms of polyserositis without identifying of etiology. The recurrent course of the disease, the constant accumulation of effusion in the abdominal and pleural cavities was the basis for the diagnosis: "compressive pericarditis complicated by calcification of unknown genesis and of constant patronage of cardiologists. Considering the tuberculous process suffered more than 10 years ago, to exclude the tuberculous etiology of polyserositis, the patient underwent pericardial resection. According to the results of microbiological examination of the surgical material, the tuberculous nature of pericarditis was established, however, according to the results of histological examination, no foci of necrosis and granuloma elements were found. The clinical case demonstrates the complexity of the diagnosis of tuberculous constrictive pericarditis with the phenomena of pronounced polyserositis, which was detected only as a result of diagnostic surgery: partial excision of the pericardium.