Pericardial Disease and Restrictive Myocardial Diseases

The pericardium is involved in many disease states. Clinical syndromes that lead to important hemodynamic consequences include pericardial effusions, constrictive pericarditis and effusive-constrictive pericarditis. This chapter provides a detailed explanation of the hemodynamics of the normal pericardium and its interactions with the cardiac chambers during respiration and explains the complex changes that occur in the presence of pericardial effusions as well as the consequences of pericardial constriction. Restrictive cardiomyopathy is a condition that mimics the pathophysiology of constrictive pericarditis and is included in this chapter.