Pericarditis
A. Etiology – The most common causes of pericarditis are either that it is idiopathic (unknown origin), or due to a viral infection. Other causes include: trauma, a myocardial, infarction, other types of infection, or other inflammatory conditions.
B. Pathophysiology – This pathology is the inflammation of the pericardium of the heart. This inflammation causes narrowing of the pericardial space, which may also cause scarring. If left untreated this may lead to pericardial effusion, which is when pericardial space fills with fluid that puts pressure on cardiac muscle, which causes cardiac dysfunction. In chronic pericarditis it has to do more with anatomical restriction of the heart due to adhesions between pericardial membranes and less to do with the increase in fluid.
C. Signs and Symptoms – Patients will show some of the following signs and symptoms: Swelling of lower extremities, anxiety, orthopnea, crackles/decreased breath sounds with auscultation, chest pain (severe), friction rub (auscultate heart), dry cough, fatigue, fever, and on the 12-lead there will be ST elevation with ST depression on PR …show more content…
Assessment – If a patient has chest pain then the paramedic should consider pericarditis as a differential diagnosis. They should perform a 12 lead as the patient may be having an MI, but look for signs of pericarditis mentioned above. The paramedic should ask the patient if they have had cardiac problems in the past or any other type of medical conditions. The paramedic should ask the patient SAMPLE questions and OPQRST to get better understanding of the condition. The paramedic should auscultate every chest pain patient and listen to heart sounds, which may indicate pericarditis. It is important to assess vitals as per every patient. Another thing we must know is the severity of the pain, so we know when we can give nitroglycerin. The paramedics should also ask what the patient was doing before the pain started as it may have been due to a
A. Etiology – The most common causes of pericarditis are either that it is idiopathic (unknown origin), or due to a viral infection. Other causes include: trauma, a myocardial, infarction, other types of infection, or other inflammatory conditions.
B. Pathophysiology – This pathology is the inflammation of the pericardium of the heart. This inflammation causes narrowing of the pericardial space, which may also cause scarring. If left untreated this may lead to pericardial effusion, which is when pericardial space fills with fluid that puts pressure on cardiac muscle, which causes cardiac dysfunction. In chronic pericarditis it has to do more with anatomical restriction of the heart due to adhesions between pericardial membranes and less to do with the increase in fluid.
C. Signs and Symptoms – Patients will show some of the following signs and symptoms: Swelling of lower extremities, anxiety, orthopnea, crackles/decreased breath sounds with auscultation, chest pain (severe), friction rub (auscultate heart), dry cough, fatigue, fever, and on the 12-lead there will be ST elevation with ST depression on PR …show more content…
Assessment – If a patient has chest pain then the paramedic should consider pericarditis as a differential diagnosis. They should perform a 12 lead as the patient may be having an MI, but look for signs of pericarditis mentioned above. The paramedic should ask the patient if they have had cardiac problems in the past or any other type of medical conditions. The paramedic should ask the patient SAMPLE questions and OPQRST to get better understanding of the condition. The paramedic should auscultate every chest pain patient and listen to heart sounds, which may indicate pericarditis. It is important to assess vitals as per every patient. Another thing we must know is the severity of the pain, so we know when we can give nitroglycerin. The paramedics should also ask what the patient was doing before the pain started as it may have been due to a