My son had this at 23. It was a pretty severe case, to the point that it elevated his cardiac enzymes as if he was having a heart attack, but he was not.

Has anyone ever had this and can it be attributed to Lyme?
 

Durameter, I've done some research now and found that up to 8% of Lymies experience percarditis. My son was told it was viral too. Maybe it was, but then they are never looking for Lyme under those circumstances.
 

A. It's Dura Mater (with an A) like one of the meninges

B. I wasn't sick with Lyme when I had pericarditis. If it hadn't been viral, it would not have resolved with steroids.
 

He was most comfortable sitting up, leaning forward slightly. Anti inflammatories did work. But it took several rounds of steroids to finally reduce the inflammation enough that it didn't bother him.
 

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oops!
Lymetutu
 

[This message has been edited by duramater (edited 17 May 2005).]
 

This was one of my son Dominic's first symptoms. Dominic would complain it felt like his dad was squeezing him in a big tight hug. He could only take small shallow breaths. He would also turn very pale and had to sleep on 3 pillows most of the time.

Once he was dx. with lyme Dr. C started him on Clindyminic and quinie and Amoxil 10 day rotation. Dr. C requested he see a cardio. and they did the echo which confirmed the Percarditis.

The best thing was within 2 months of treatment Dominic's symptoms were almost gone. A year later at his follow up visit the echo was perfect. He hasn't had any symptoms of this again.

Starr
 

It took about 2 weeks to get a diagnosis for my son. At first it was attributed to anxiety with the way he would take these deep breaths. Doctors felt he was holding his breath.

As it progressively got worse and he couldn't sleep lieing down and eventually realized he could relieve it by leaning forward, that is when a doctor realized what it was. He began treatment with anti-inflammatories which didn't work and he ended up in the ER where they did more extensive tests, like the cardiac enzymes.

I guess that isn't a real common symptom, but a cardiologist said if the rub was bad enough it could irritate the heart and cause it to produce those enzymes that you would normally see in a heart attack, Considering his age and EKG, they trully didn't believe it to be a heart attack.

Even in the ER with the elevated cardiac enzymes run twice, one ER doc still refused to believe it was pericariditis. He was such a jerk. Not a cardiologist, just and jerky ER doctor.

It was very stubborn and took weeks to run it's course, and was only relieved with large amounts of steroids. Great huh?
 

She had decided - without Mom's knowledge - that she was sick of taking her abx...

She had ended up with pericarditis! We were told that since she already has heart issues from lyme, most likely. When she decided to stop taking her abx - the lyme had a "hay day" with the lining of her heart.

It was a horrible lesson - but now she takes her meds.