[Constrictive pericarditis and post-radiotherapy myocarditis with mitral incompetence (author's transl)]

The cardiac complications of radiotherapy of the thorax (e.g. for Hodgkin's disease and carcinoma of the breast) are various: 1) Pleural effusions, occurring a few months to two years after radiotherapy, spontaneously curable but may give signs of tamponnade or lead to constriction. 2) Constrictive pericarditis often several years after irradiation, with a poor prognosis in spite of attempts at pericardectomy which is indicated at the stage of hemodynamic constriction. 3) Myocardial involvement with advanced fibrosis and with various clinical presentations. The failure of pericardectomy and mitral incompetence were evidence of myocarditis in the case reported here.