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Postgrad Med J 2002;78:362-363 doi:10.1136/pmj.78.920.362
  • Case report

Immunological analysis of pleural fluid in post-cardiac injury syndrome

  1. R Shrivastava1,
  2. S Venkatesh1,
  3. B B Pavlovich2,
  4. J Bharadwaj1,
  5. A Vaz3
  1. 1Department of Internal Medicine, Park Ridge Hospital, Rochester, New York
  2. 2Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
  3. 3Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology Unit, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York
  1. Correspondence and reprint requests to:
 Dr Rakesh Shrivastava, Department of Internal Medicine, Park Ridge Hospital, 1555 Long Pond Road, Rochester, NY-14626, USA;
 rs243{at}hotmail.com
  • Received 25 July 2001
  • Accepted 27 February 2002

Abstract

Post-cardiac injury syndrome (PCIS) is an inflammatory process involving pleura and pericardium secondary to cardiac injury. Even though this clinical entity has been recognised for decades, diagnosis is difficult because of lack of a diagnostic test. Antimyocardial antibody titre in pleural fluid and serum has been proposed to have diagnostic value. However there are inherent difficulties in measuring and interpreting the role of antimyocardial antibody. A case of PCIS with low pleural fluid complement level is reported, which it is believed can be useful to support the diagnosis of PCIS.

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