pericarditis

[benedwards1]

About 7 weeks ago I cam down with a severe viral infection.  went through all of the flu symptoms fever, chills, loss of appetite, tiredness, muscle and joint aches and rashes on my forehead and scalp.  I though it may have been STD but all the test came negative except for herpes 1.  Since the initial infection all the other symptoms have gone away but still little tired even after a full night sleep and having muscle and joint aches.  About a week ago I started to have some chest pain on upper left part of my chest so went to the ER and after chest x ray and EKG the doc diagnoseds with pericarditis.  I am currently taking ibuprofen to relieve the pain but the question is can the pericarditis cause tiredness, dizziness, motor speech problems and joint and muscle pains?  should I see a cardiologist for a follow up?  I am 34 year old male in good health prior to the infection and concerned about CFS, fibro and chronic pericardits.  thank you for your advice.

[chrissy87]

My father, a 51 year old male has been having chest pain for the last month. It statred off as a cough that never went away, then he started having chest pain. It gets worse with each passing day. He was sent to emergency and had a blood test done which cleared him of an MI and angina, as well as an ECG and a chest x-ray which all came back negative to an MI. He recently had a stress test which was good up until the last 3 minutes where they made him run, then the chest pain increased. He describes the pains and a constant pain with heaviness that radiates to his back and up into his shoulders and throat. He cant sleep at night cause he cannot get comfortable. He is a smoker and does have high BP, but he is on medication for it. He is a slender man, who has worked physical labour (buliding fences) since in his young 20's, and he eats very healthy. The doctors dont seem to think its cardiac related cause in the last 2 weeks he has had 3 ECG's that have came back good. Any thought or idea to what this pain can be from, and if its cardiac related?

[Cleveland Clinic]

Pericarditis typically only causes chest pain and some weakness and fatigue.  The latter two are due to the syndrome aspect of the process.  Meaning, that most of the time, this illness is caused by a viral infection.  There is a small minority of patients who have other causes linked to their pericarditis.  In some, the pericarditis is a first manifestation of an underlying autoimmune disease.  We typically do not look into these etiologies unless the symptoms do not resolve in about a month after the original diagnosis.  I am a little concerned about the speech problems and the dizziness in you.  I think, at this point, since your symptoms are somewhat atypical, that you should seek further care.  Seeing a cardiologist would be a good starting point.