Acute pericarditis: diagnosis and management.

Acute pericarditis, inflammation of the pericardium, is found in approximately 5% of patients admitted to the emergency department for chest pain unrelated to acute myocardial infarction. It occurs most often in men 20 to 50 years of age. Acute pericarditis has a number of potential etiologies including infection, acute myocardial infarction, medication use, trauma to the thoracic cavity, and systemic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.