We describe a patient who developed acute pericarditis with effusion six weeks following irradiation of the chest for bilateral carcinoma of the breast. Oral therapy with corticosteroids was rapidly followed by a decrease of the cardiac shadow and by clinical improvement; the pericardial fluid did not reappear during a follow-up period of four years. It seems that acute pericarditis with effusion may appear in the early period after irradiation of the chest and can be treated with corticosteroids.
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