Exudative pericarditis in sarcoidosis. A case report and echocardiographic study

Involvement of the pericardium in sarcoidosis is infrequent as earlier reported. The involvement may be accompanied by pericardial effusion. We report the case of a 43 year-old man with non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy for almost two decades who developed an effusion in the pericardial sac. As pericardial effusion is not a part of this disease and no other common cause was found we believe that the exudation was caused by sarcoidosis which started one year earlier. This finding initiated an echocardiographic study in 18 consecutive sarcoid patients, 8 with acute and 10 with chronic disease. None had pericardial effusion and only one demonstrated a thickening of the pericardial tissue.