Pericardial Mesothelioma

Pericardial Mesothelioma is a rare form of Mesothelioma that occurs in the pericardium of the heart. Pericardium is the protecting lining of the heart that provides support as well as protection for this delicate and important organ of the body. Like other Mesothelioma, Pericardial Mesothelioma is caused by asbestos. As in pleural Mesothelioma fibers enter the lungs region, but in some cases by some unknown way, some times these fibers moves into the lining of the heart and starts to be deposited there.

Once the asbestos fibers starts to be accumulated in the pericardium region, due to certain chemical reaction certain kind of abnormalities occur in the affected cells and as the result of the irregular and multiple cell division malignancy occurs and tumor is formed. Due to the deposition of the malignant cells, the pericardium becomes thick and generates fluid here. The thickness and deposited fluid increase pressure on the heart, and due to this abnormal situation the symptoms occur like following: Irregular heartbeat, Frequently occurred palpitation, and Shortness in taking breath causing suffocation and restlessness.

The way to diagnose the disease is next to difficult because all the major symptoms of this problem are non-specific in nature and there is ample scope to mis judge the disease. Chest X-ray, CT-scan or an MRI is the initial process to detect abnormality in the cell wall and ultimately biopsy is the test to fix the presence of malignancy in the affected region in a confirmed way.

The only way to apply surgical method in affected pericardium is the application of radical surgery, but due to the close nearness of heart this process of surgery remains very risky and doctors do not want to take this fatal risk.
Chemotherapy is the only way to provide some relief for the suffering patient and in this case, Pallilative therapy is applied to control the pain generated from this disease.
Needle therapy is also used here to remove some amount of fluid and radiation therapy is applied to decrease the tumor size as well as to restrict the aggression of the disease.