Fibrinous pericarditis in alcoholic liver disease.

The autopsy data at the University of Southern California Liver Unit was studied during a 6-year period to investigate the relationship of fibrinous pericarditis with liver diseases. We found 18 cases of fibrinous pericarditis in 220 patients with alcoholic liver disease but none in 32 patients with fulminant and subacute hepatitis without alcoholism or in 39 patients with nonalcoholic cirrhosis. Although all the 18 patients with pericarditis had azotemia, 3 patients had pericarditis develop only in mild renal function impairment. These findings suggest that chronic alcoholism may precipitate pericarditis during the hepatorenal syndrome.