Pericardial constriction occurs when a fibrotic, adherent pericardium restricts diastolic filling of the heart. Variants of<unk>  have been described such as transient, subtle, effusive and chronic, depending on the course of the disease. The disease process typically begins with pericardial inflammation that progresses onto fibrosis. (Pathophysiology)It may occasionally follow an episode of acute pericarditis. There is fibrous scarring of the pericardium and usually fusion of the visceral and parietal pericardium. The pericardium is composed of a double-layered sac that surrounds the heart and the roots of the great vessels. The serous layer (smooth visceral) and a fibrous layer (tough parietal) of the pericardium encloses the pericardial cavity which contains pericardial fluid.The pericardium function is to protect the heart against infection and to provide it with lubrication.<unk>  is a chronic inflammation that leads to the thickening, fibrosis, and scarring of the pericardial sac. The thickened fibrotic pericardium restricts the normal late diastolic filling in<unk>  and results in significant respiratory variation in blood flow in the ventricles. This is known as ventricular interdependence, where the amount of blood flow into one ventricle is dependent on the amount of blood flow into the other ventricle.The intrapericardial space contains 50 mL of plasma ultrafiltrate that minimize friction during cardiac motion. pericarditis causes that can trigger the development of<unk>  are tuberculosis, viral infection, radiation therapy, trauma, post-cardiac surgery.<unk>  is most commonly caused by conditions or events that cause inflammation to develop around the heart, including idiopathic, infectious (viral, bacterial, tuberculous, fungal, parasitic ) and purulent pericarditis. It can also occur post MI (Dressler syndrome), post surgical (CABG), post radiation therapy.<unk>  can also be caused by or associated with connective tissue disease, pulmonary asbestosis, chronic renal failure, neoplasm (mesothelioma).<unk>  must be differentiated from restrictive cardiomyopathy. The evaluation of ventricular interdependence between the two ventricles is the best objective method to distinguish the two syndromes.<unk>  should also be differentiated from cardiac tamponade, right-sided atrial tumors, such as myxomas, superior vena cava syndrome, right-sided valvular abnormalities (tricuspid stenosis or tricuspid regurgitation), systolic or diastolic congestive heart failure( pressure-overload and myocardial, valvular, or atherosclerotic disease causes)
Constrictive pericarditis
Cholesterol pericarditis
Radiation induced pericarditis
Tuberculous pericarditis
Stress cardiomyopathy
Uremic pericarditis
Myopericarditis
Aicardi syndrome