Massive purulent pericarditis in HIV-infected children.

Sir,

The report on “massive purulent pericarditis in HIV-infected children” is very interesting.[1] Bernadette et al. concluded that “massive purulent pericarditis is quite uncommon, but may still be found in HIV-infected children.”[1] In fact, the infectious cause of purulent pericarditis should be kept in mind when one deals with unexplained cardiac tamponade. A well-known rare syndrome namely “Lemierre's syndrome” should be mentioned. This syndrome is composed of “thrombophlebitis of internal jugular vein, septicemia and septic metastatic infection of different organs.”[2] Massive purulent pericarditis in the patient with Lemierre's syndrome is also observable. An important concern is the isolated pathogen in the patient can methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus which is hard to manage.[23] This might or might not associate with HIV infection. To early diagnose is required, and a point-of-care ultrasonography is reported to be a useful diagnostic tool for preliminary diagnosis.[4]

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