What is the incidence of clinically significant arrhythmias in patients with acute pericarditis?
Clinically significant arrhythmias during acute pericarditis are rare and generally occur only in the presence of underlying myocardial, valvular, or coronary artery disease.
One hundred consecutive patients were examined to ascertain the incidence of clinically significant arrhythmias during acute pericarditis. Only seven arrhythmias, all atrial, occurred, and these only in patients with heart disease. It appears that the vulnerability of the sinus node to being engulfed by subepicardial extension of the inflammatory process is insufficient by itself to provoke arrhythmias in the absence of disease of the myocardium, valves, or coronary arteries. (JAMA235:39-41, 1976)
David H. Spodick (1976) studied this question.