I have been diagnosed with Crohn's for over 5 years now. This year I also came down with pericarditis - a severe inflammation of the pericardium, the membrane that surrounds the heart. This in turn induced constrictive heart failure. My heart itself was fine, but the inflamed and thickened membrane prevented the heart from filling with blood properly which led to reduced cardiac output and thus the heart failure.
This was cured by surgery to remove the inflamed pericardium which allowed the heart to beat freely again, and thus the heart failure cleared up.
Docs still don't know the cause of the pericarditis. So my question is has anyone had or heard of Crohn's attacking the pericardium as a site of extra-intestinal Crohn's?
This was cured by surgery to remove the inflamed pericardium which allowed the heart to beat freely again, and thus the heart failure cleared up.
Docs still don't know the cause of the pericarditis. So my question is has anyone had or heard of Crohn's attacking the pericardium as a site of extra-intestinal Crohn's?