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Volume 34, Issue 4, December 2023



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Mediterr J Rheumatol 2021;32(1):88-90
All That Glitters is not Gold! A Case of Concomitant Acute Pericarditis and Subsegmental Pulmonary Embolism
Authors Information
  1. First Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital “Hippokration”, Thessaloniki, Greece
  2. Second Department of Cardiology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
  3. Department of Radiology, General Hospital “Hippokration”, Thessaloniki, Greece

Dimitrios Patoulias 

Abstract

Concomitance of acute pericarditis and pulmonary embolism is extremely rare, with only a few case reports published so far. Herein we present a case of a 50-year-old man that presented to the Emergency Department, complaining of fever up to 38.5oC, pleuritic chest pain, nausea, arthralgias, and general symptoms during the previous two weeks. Thorough diagnostic work-up revealed the diagnosis of concomitant acute pericarditis and pulmonary embolism, which raised high index of clinical suspicion for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Indeed, the patient did not marginally meet the diagnostic criteria for SLE (total score=8), according to the updated 2019 European League Against Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology Classification Criteria.Since then, the patient remains asymptomatic, while he is under close monitoring for potential manifestation of other SLE clinical features. Our case highlights the need for long-term follow-up in such patients, especially when the first episode is attributed as idiopathic.


Article Submitted: 4 Oct 2020; Revised Form: 10 Nov 2020; Article Accepted: 20 Nov 2020; Available Online: 8 Feb 2021

https://doi.org/10.31138/mjr.32.1.88

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY). 

©Patoulias D, Papachristou S, Vitos D, Apostolidou X, Georgopoulou V, Kozanidou A, Stamou D, Samarentsis N, Chioni A, Bakatselos S.