Dressler's syndrome (patient information)
|
Dressler's syndrome |
|
Dressler's syndrome On the Web |
|---|
For the WikiDoc page for this topic, click here
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
What are the symptoms of Dressler's syndrome?
- Anxiety
- Chest pain
- May come and go (recur)
- Pain may be sharp and stabbing (pleuritic) or tight and crushing (ischemic)
- Pain may get worse when breathing and may go away when you stand or sit up
- Pain moves to the neck, shoulder, back, or abdomen
- Difficulty breathing
- Dry cough
- Fast heart rate (tachycardia)
- Fatigue
- Fever (more common with the second type of pericarditis)
- Malaise (general ill feeling)
- Splinting of ribs (bending over or holding the chest) with deep breathing
What causes Dressler's syndrome?
- Two types of pericarditis can occur after a heart attack.
- The first type of pericarditis most often occurs within 2 to 5 days after a heart attack. When the body tries to clean up the diseased heart tissue, swelling and inflammation occur.
- The second type of pericarditis is also called Dressler's syndrome (or post-cardiac injury syndrome or postcardiotomy pericarditis). It occurs several weeks or months after a heart attack, heart surgery, or other trauma to the heart. Dressler's syndrome is believed to be caused by the immune system attacking the area.
- Pain occurs when the pericardium becomes inflamed (swollen) and rubs on the heart.
- You have a higher risk of pericarditis if you have had a previous heart attack, open heart surgery, or chest trauma, or if your heat attack affected the thickness of your heart muscle.