What is the most effective treatment for acute pericarditis?
5. What is the most likely cause of the hypotension in this patient? 1. What is the most likely clinical diagnosis of this patient’s chest pain? The most likely clinical diagnosis of this patient’s chest pain is acute idiopathic or viral pericarditis. Relatively common causes of acute chest pain that must be considered are MI or ACS, pericarditis, aortic dissection, pneumonia, pulmonary embolus, costochondritis, and pneumothorax. The pertinent features of the history and physical examination that lead to this diagnosis are that the pain was preceded by a viral prodrome and was very clearly positional and exacerbated by inspiration, which strongly suggests pericardial pain. Pericardial pain does not improve with NTG, but the lack of response to NTG does not exclude an acute MI. The patient’s vital signs were stable except for a slight fever and tachycardia that are also very frequent in either acute pericarditis or MI. The absence of tachypnea, together with the normal examination findi
