Frequency and Prognostic Significance of Pericarditis Following Acute Myocardial Infarction Treated by Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Prospective data were collected from 743 consecutive patients with ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarctions (AMIs) treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (mean age 65.3 ± 11.6 years, 36.7% women). Early post-AMI pericarditis was diagnosed in 31 patients (4.2%; mean age 62.1 ± 13.4 years, 41.9% women), with an increasing prevalence according to presentation delay (p 6 hours. Late post-AMI pericarditis (Dressler syndrome) was recorded in only 1 patient (0.1%). On multivariate analysis, patients with presentation times >6 hours (odds ratio 4.4, 95% confidence interval 2.0 to 9.8, p