Pleuropericarditis and disseminated intravascular coagulation in ulcerative colitis

We report a 30-year-old woman with pleuropericarditis, cardiac tamponade, a nd disseminated intravascular coagulation complicating active ulcerative co litis (UC). Other autoimmune diseases were not present. She responded to pu lsed steroid therapy and anticoagulant with resolution of the complication and UC. We reviewed the literature and found 27 cases of pleuropericarditis associated with idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It has been r eported that pleuropericarditis associated with IBD responds well to nonste roidal antiinflammatory drugs, as well as steroids. The causes of cardiac i nvolvement in IBD remain unclear, but the pleuropericarditis must be recogn ized as a potential extraintestinal manifestation of IBD.