[Post-radiotherapy pericarditis. 5 cases (author's transl)]

These cases represented 2.8% of the patients admitted for pericarditis during the same period. The cause of irradiation was a carcinoma of the breast in three cases and a carcinoma of the oesophagus in two cases. Acute forms of pericarditis occured 8 and 13 months after irradiations, and chronic forms after 1, 8 and 13 years. Three clinical forms were observed; two patients had an acute form; the first one with a slight effusion was easily cured, the second with cardiac tamponnade recovered after surgical evacuation, two others patients had a chronic latent effusion; after surgical evacuation, one recovered but the other one developped an occult constrictive pericarditis diagnosed by rapid volume expansion. The fifth case was a constrictive pericarditis which was effectively traited by pericardectomy. The difficulty of etiological diagnosis varies with the time and the amount of effusion. When the effusion is moderate the distinction must be made with an acute idiopathic pericarditis; when effusion is large the distinction must be made with a tuberculosis and specially a tumoral recurrence; in three cases pericardial biopsy was carried out and eliminated these diagnosises; lesions were similar: pericard was sclerous and little in cells, inflammatory signs were slight or absent. The postoperative prognosis in constrictive pericarditis may be agravated by associated myocardial lesions.