Constrictive pericarditis: case presentation and a review of the literature.

Constrictive pericarditis (CP) is a relatively rare entity, the result of a thickened, scarred and often calcified pericardium, adherent to the heart and limiting diastolic ventricular filling. Some reported etiologies for CP include pericardial involvement from cardiac trauma (including surgery), mediastinal irradiation, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, neoplasms and myocardial infarction. However, the majority of CP cases are idiopathic. This report presents three cases of postoperative, tuberculous and idiopathic CP, highlighting the clinical and pathological changes seen in CP, and a review of the literature.