Symptoms:

• Anxiety
• Chest pain
  • May come and go (recur)
  • Pain may be sharp and stabbing (pleuritic) or tight and crushing (ischemic)
  • Pain may get worse when breathing and may go away when you stand or sit up
  • Pain moves to the neck, shoulder, back, or abdomen
• Difficulty breathing
• Dry cough
• Fast heart rate (tachycardia)
• Fatigue
• Fever (more common with the second type of pericarditis)
• Malaise (general ill feeling)
• Splinting of ribs (bending over or holding the chest) with deep breathing

Signs and tests:

The health care provider will use a stethoscope to listen to your heart and lungs. There may be a rubbing sound (called a pericardial friction rub, not to be confused with a heart murmur). Heart sounds in general may be weak or sound far away.

A buildup of fluid in the covering of the heart or space around the lungs (pericardial effusion) is not common after a heart attack. But, it often does occur in some patients with Dressler's syndrome.

Tests may include:

• Cardiac injury markers (CK-MB and troponin may help tell pericarditis from a heart attack)
• Chest CT scan
• Chest MRI
• Chest x-ray
• Complete blood count
• ECG
• Echocardiogram
• ESR (sedimentation rate) or C-reactive protein (measures of inflammation)