[Recurrent pericarditis as an initial manifestation of Wegener's granulomatosis].
Recurrent pericarditis occur in around a quarter of patients after a first episode of acute pericarditis. Most of the cases are idiopathic or viral pericarditis or post-pericardial injury syndromes. Recurrent pericarditis are most likely to occur in patients with known systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis but are rare in other systemic auto-immune diseases. We report here an unusual case of a patient with a 5-year history of four acute myopericarditis revealing Wegener's granulomatosis. Clinicians should consider the possibility of Wegener's granulomatosis in case of recurrent pericarditis and look for features suggestive of granulomatous disease affecting the upper and lower respiratory tract. In this setting, antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) testing and/or biopsy of involved organs appear of particular interest to confirm the diagnosis.