[Pericarditis and pericardial effusion as the first presentation of systemic lupus erythematosus. Case report].

Background: Acute pericarditis is rare in children; it can evolve to effusion or even cardiac tamponade. The main infectious agents are viruses and bacteria. The pharmacological treatment includes NSAIDs; just a few patients need pericardiocentesis.

Clinical Case: A school-age patient was hospitalized because of chest pain; she was diagnosed with acute pericarditis and pericardial effusion, without any other symptoms. The disease pattern then evolved to dry cough, crushing epigastric abdominal pain, vomiting and fever. Due to a poor response to the initial treatment, immunological studies were requested. She tested positive to antinuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-double stranded DNA, direct Coombs and anticardiolipin antibodies; hypocomplementemia with lymphopenia was detected too, which is an indicative of systematic lupus erythematosus.

Conclusions: The torpid evolution or recurrence of pericarditis must direct toward excluding neoplastic or autoimmune bodies. Cardiovascular manifestations rarely appear initially in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.