Acute graft rejection mimicking constrictive pericarditis after heart transplantation. A case report

Lucrecia María Burgos; Franco Nicolás Ballari; Rocío Consuelo Baro Vila; María Antonella de Bortoli; Mariano Vrancic; Mirta Diez

doi:10.47487/apcyccv.v5i2.339

Authors

Lucrecia María Burgos Instituto Cardiovascular, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3999-1265
Franco Nicolás Ballari Instituto Cardiovascular, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0981-1235
Rocío Consuelo Baro Vila Instituto Cardiovascular, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7377-343X
María Antonella de Bortoli Instituto Cardiovascular, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Mariano Vrancic Instituto Cardiovascular, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4518-2085
Mirta Diez Instituto Cardiovascular, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3916-1496

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47487/apcyccv.v5i2.339

Keywords:

Heart Transplantation, Graft Rejection, Pericarditis, Constrictive

Abstract

Constrictive pericarditis (CP) is an infrequent complication following heart transplantation (HTx) and arises from diverse postoperative occurrences, including mediastinitis, pericardial effusion, or allograft rejection. Indeed, this rare clinical entity can be misdiagnosed as a rejection episode or restrictive cardiomyopathy. In this report, we present the case of a 43-year-old male who underwent HTx 1.5 years prior and was subsequently admitted to our center due to the gradual onset of symptoms indicative of right congestive heart failure, with an initial diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis.

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