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A woman gasps for air, her heart threatens to stop. A doctor reacts immediately – and discovers: The joints are also attacked. Can it be the autoimmune disease lupus?
About two years ago a young woman was admitted to the mission hospital in Peru where I have been working for over three years. When I first saw her, she could hardly breathe. The ultrasound showed a pronounced pericardial effusion: A lot of fluid had collected in the pericardium, i.e. in the layer of tissue that surrounds the heart. It was so much that the heart could swing back and forth in it.