[The etiological structure of pericarditis].

Data are submitted from the published literature and the authors' observations on causation of pericarditis and transformation of its patterns over the last 24 years. The paper is based on the analysis of 325 patients having been operated on for constrictive pericarditis during the period 1974-1998. Over the last 12 years there has been an increase in the incidence of pericarditis of nonspecific etiology whereas that of pericarditis of rheumatic and tuberculous genesis has gotten substantially decreased.