Table 1.

Differential diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis and restrictive cardiomyopathy.

	Constrictive pericarditis	Restrictive cardiomyopathy
Clinical examination	Kussmaul's sign, usually present	Kussmaul's sign, may be present
	Pulsus paradoxus (may be present)	Pulsus paradoxus (infrequent)
	Pericardial knock	S3; Systolic murmur due to mitral and tricuspidal regurgitaion
Echocardiogram
Pericardial appearance	Thickened/bright	Normal
Atrial size	Minor enlargement	Major enlargement
Septal motion	Respiratory shift	Normal
Mitral inflow respiratory variation	Usually present (>25%)	Absent
TDI septal S' wave, cm/s	>5	<5
Speckle tracking	↓ Circumferential strain	↓ Radial and longitudinal strain
Biomarkers
NT-proBNP	Normal or slightly abnormal	Abnormal
Cardiac catheterization
Right and left ventricular end-diastolic pressures comparison	Equal or ≤ 5 mm Hg	Usually left > right
Dip-plateau waveform	Typically present	Can be present
CT scan/MRI
Pericardial thickening	Present	Absent