CardioPulse Articles

Extract

The new ESC Guidelines—presented at the ESC Congress 2015 by joint Task Force Chairs Professor Yehuda Adler (Israel) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and Professor Philippe Charron (France) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)—discuss in detail the different clinical presentations and various aetiologies that require appropriate management.

Previous ESC Guidelines on Pericardial diseases were published in 2004. As part of their updated recommendations, the Task Force performed a systematic review of the evidence including new retrospective and the first prospective double-blind trials in patients with pericardial diseases.

The pericardium (meaning ‘around’ and ‘heart’) is a double-walled sac containing the heart and the roots of the great vessels. It provides lubrication and protection from infection. Pericardial diseases may be isolated or part of a systemic disease. The main pericardial syndromes are pericarditis, pericardial effusion, cardiac tamponade, constrictive pericarditis, and pericardial masses. Medical therapies for this group of diseases are off-label since no drug has been registered for a specific pericardial indication.