Looking For Answers

Back in December I was diagnosed with pericarditis- I had echos, heart imagine, stress test, chest xrays, heart scan, and blood work- aside from the pericarditis everything was okay- some scar tissue did form after the inflammation had cleared up. In May I started having chest pains and shortness of breath and bad fatigue. I had another Echo done and the doctor said it looked okay but he wants to do a heart cathether. I'm a little worried it might be Congestive Heart Failure. I'm 29, have no history of heart disease. I do have low good cholesterol but my bad cholesterol is normal. I guess my question is with all the tests I've had that have been normal, is the doctor being thorough or is there a possibility of heart failure?

[Dr_Veena]

Hi,
     Pericarditis, usually resolves with in few weeks, but can result in certain complications like tamponade, chronic pericarditis or constrictive pericarditis. As, you already had a echocardiogram, which rules out tamponade a cardiac catheterization should be done to rule out constrictive pericarditis. A CT or MRI scan can also help to diagnose chronic or constrictive pericarditis, by showing the thickening of the pericardial lining associated with these conditions. You need to get a cardiac catheterization for conclusion on this. Hope this helps. Best

[JDS2805]

Thanks! Should I still be worried about Congestive Heart Failure- of course I'm no doctor but it would seem that with all the tests I've had at least one would have been abmornal to suspect Congestive Heart Failure- I had another EKG, X-Ray, and Bloodwork done yesterday and it was all normal.