Primary (isolated) meningococcal pericarditis caused by N. meningitidis: case report

Abstract

Meningococcal infection is one of the potentially fatal infectious diseases. In particular, in the case of a generalized form of meningococcal infection, the probability of death ranges from 6.9% to 12.8%. To date, there has been an increase in the incidence of generalized meningococcal infection on the territory of the Russian Federation with an increase in the incidence rate by 2 times (0.44 per 100 thousand population in 2022). At the same time, rare forms of meningococcal infection, such as pericarditis, myocarditis, focal glomerulonephritis, arthritis, etc., in the onset of the disease are characterized by the absence of pathognomonic clinical symptoms, which makes it difficult to timely verify the diagnosis and, as a result, increases the risk of developing a generalized form of meningococcal infection and an unfavorable outcome of the disease. The article presents a clinical case of isolated (primary) pericarditis caused by N. meningitidis.