1 The Cardiology Branch and the Clinic of Surgery, National Heart Institute, and the Metabolism Service, National Cancer Institute
A 6-year-old girl with anasarca, bilateral pleural effusions, and ascites was found to have severe hypoproteinemia secondary to gastrointestinal protein loss. This protein-losing enteropathy was originally felt to be idiopathic in origin, but re-examination some months later led to the recognition of chronic constrictive pericarditis. Pericardiectomy resulted in a complete relief of symptoms with a return of plasma proteins to normal and disappearance of the enteropathy. The 9 previously reported patients with protein-losing enteropathy and constrictive pericarditis are discussed briefly and the preoperative and postoperative data in our patient, including cardiac catheterizations and studies of protein metabolism, are presented.
Submitted on April 26, 1964