Date Published: 11/26/09

Yar'Adua suffering from life threatening disease -Doctor

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua

Doctors report have confirmed that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is suffering from “acute pericarditis,” a deadly ailment that results from Churg–Strauss syndrome.

The President was recently admitted to a Saudi Arabia hospital shortly after he arrived the holy land. 

The disclosure may have thrown the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in disarray as they would have to begin to shop for a healthy candidate for the 2011 Presidential election. The President’s second term ambition has also been nailed days after Senator Polycarp Nwite, Adviser to the President on Politics inaugurated heads of Yar’Adua’s 2011 Presidential election campaign team.

In a statement signed by Dr. Salisu Banye, a personal physician to President Yar’Adua, it said “The medical review and tests undertaken at the hospital have confirmed the initial diagnosis that the president is indeed suffering from acute pericarditis. He is now receiving treatment for the illness and he is responding remarkably well."

The pericardium (pair"e-KAR'de-um) is the thin sac (membrane) that surrounds the heart and the roots of the great blood vessels.

Pericarditis (pair"e-kar-DI'tis) is inflammation of the pericardium. The pericardium has an inner and outer layer with a small amount of lubricating fluid between them. When the pericardium becomes inflamed, the amount of fluid between the two layers increases. This squeezes the heart and restricts its action.

This problem occurs most often in men ages 20 to 50. Chest pain is common, especially pain behind the breastbone. Sometimes this pain spreads to the neck and left shoulder. Pain from pericarditis is different from angina (AN'jih-nah or an-JI'nah). (Angina is chest pain or discomfort due to reduced blood supply to the heart muscle.) Angina feels like pressure, but pericarditis usually is a sharp, piercing pain over the center or left side of the chest. Often this pain gets worse if the person takes a deep breath. Less often the pain is dull. A fever is also common. Often people with pericarditis report feeling sick. Some have pain when they swallow.

In most cases, why pericarditis occurs is unknown. However, it can result from one or more of these:

• a viral, bacterial or fungal infection
• heart attack
• cancer spreading from a nearby tumor in the lung, breast or the blood
• radiation treatment
• injury or surgery

Sometimes it accompanies rheumatoid arthritis, lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus) (e-rith"eh-mah-TO'sus) and kidney failure. 

President Yar'Adua had already been diagnosed with Churg Straus Syndrome, inflammations of the Blood vessel, a Kidney problem and yet to be confirmed Pulmonary Fibrosis for which he has at various times visited Saudi Arabia and Germany for treatments.

Churg-Strauss syndrome often progresses in three overlapping phases. The first prodromal period may last up to 30 years and is respiratory, beginning with allergic rhinitis or nasal polyposis, frequently followed by asthma. The second phase consists of peripheral and tissue eosinophilia, with eosinophilic pneumonia, or gastroenteritis. During this second phase, the disease may also wax and wane for years before the third (vasculitic) phase begins. This last phase develops a mean of 3 years after the onset of asthma. Shorter intervals between onset of asthma and vasculitis are associated with a poor prognosis. The 3 phases do not always progress in this order