pericardial cyst

[pro2675]

My cousin has a percardiaal cyst on the inside and outside of his heart.  The doc has not offered much info.  He is 24 and was in really good shape when he found out.  Now he can excerise alittle.  He has always been very athleltic (a skater).  He doesn't smoke or consumes caffiene.  He is having chest pains alot keeping him from everything expect work.  Thats a must need to keep the ins. Do any of you take anything for the pains?  Is there a diet that will help?  Like I said his doc hasn't told him much.  Any advice or experience would be greatly apperciated.  Please help.

[leechlover]

Hi, Starting in June of last year, after starting a new diet, I had very low blood pressure, to the point I could not get out of bed. My doctor ran blood tests, and thought it might be hormones or missing vitamins. I upped a few of those things trying to help. By September, my blood pressure was sky high, I had a very high heart rate, adrenaline surges, and tremors. In September the day before Labor Day I ended up in ER after not sleeping for 3 days straight because of the very high heart rate, weakness, adrenaline surges, chest compression, etc. I got up from bed and almost blacked out. After running a bunch of blood tests, and doing an EKG, and a chest X-Ray the doctor said nothing was wrong, and I could go home. The tremors were so bad my mother had to hold me on the bed. I begged the Dr. for help. He finally said he thought it might be an adrenal tumor called a pheochromocytoma. He said I should follow up with my regular doctor after the holidays, and prescribed me Lorazepam to sleep. After the holiday, I had an MRI, more blood taken, and got more Lorazepam while we waited to see the tests results. The blood test was done wrong, and the MRI was inconclusive. So, we did another blood test, and a 24 urinalysis. Those came back inconclusive. In the meantime, I had to have sinus surgery. That took me until March to recover from. Starting in January the original symptoms got worse, and now I was nauseous all the time, and added vomitting, shortness of breath, pain with the chest compression, and other symptoms to the list. By April, I was throwing up every few days, and I had lost 15 lbs in 2 weeks because I could not eat anything. 3 weeks ago, I ended up in ER again because I had severe back pain with the nausea and vomitting. They did more blood tests and an abdominal CT scan, and said everything was fine and sent me home again. The next day my mother noticed that the radiologist noted the I had a possible pericardial cyst. I researched this to death, and realized that I had all of the symptoms. I made and appointment with a cardiac surgeon, and agonized over the 2 week wait time. I got in to see him, and he said there was a cyst, but it was small. He referred me to another doctor in his office who had more expertise than he did with cysts. The second Dr. was errorgant, and said my cyst was absolutely too small to be causing the symptoms I was having, and basically dismissed me. Now, I am at a loss as to what I should do. My gut tells me, that even though the cyst is small, it is likely causing the symptoms. I am about to lose my job, and I can't keep hardly any food down, and I don't know who to turn to. Is it possible that even a small cyst could cause these symptoms? Is it possible that they missed the cyst the first time, and it ruptured and has reformed? Do you have an idea of who might be of help to me? I am at my wits end. Thank you for reading this.

[kenkeith]

Any clinical significance would depend upon the site, size and stage of development of the cyst.  A problem can be if and when the cyst grows large enough to impede on adejacent organs.  Also consideration should be given  whether the cyst is dead or alive and whether it is secondarily infected or not. Some cysts have a core of fluid substance and can rupture into the pericardium sac.  The risk then can be heart failure due to hemorrhage into a pericardial cyst.  

The treatment would be to remove the cyst; sometimes draining the cyst can be effective.

Thanks for sharing and if you have any further questions or comments you are welcome to respond.  Hope this helps you.  Take care,


Regards,
Ken