Cholesterol pericarditis; successful treatment by pericardiectomy

Although cholesterol pericarditis is usually associated with myxedema, it may occur as a result of tuberculous infection or hemopericardium. Cardiac constriction is apparently an uncommnon feature of the condition. A case of chronic constrictive cholesterol pericarditis was treated by pericardiectomy with complete relief of symptoms. Neither bacteriologic nor histologic studies of the resected pericardium revealed the etiologic basis for cholesterol accumulation within the pericardial sac.