Cardiac Tamponade in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a disease with a broad clinical spectrum. Cardiac involvement has been well documented (1,2) and can appear as pericarditis, myocarditis, endocarditis, or coronary artery disease. Cardiac involvement is rarely reported as the initial manifestation of the disease (2,3).Cardiac tamponade is an unusual complication in SLE and until recently only 12 such cases had been reported in the English literature (4). In only 5 of these was tamponade the initial manifestation. We describe a patient who presented with pericarditis as the initial manifestation of SLE, with the rapid development of a life-threatening pericardial tamponade.