Echocardiography of constrictive pericarditis

Abstract

Constrictive pericarditis is a relatively rare disorder, characterized by chronic scarring and fusing of layers of pericardium, resulting in the loss of pericardial elasticity and formation of a rigid shell covering the heart and externally limiting its filling.

Keywords

• constrictive pericarditis
• restriction of ventricular filling
• dissociation of intrathoracic and intracardiac pressures