Incidence Trends

Both primary and secondary diagnosis groups showed rising incidence over the study period. The study did not identify a sharp incidence inflection at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Lower incidence estimates in some Finnish and Swiss studies may reflect restriction to primary pericarditis diagnoses. A US tertiary children's hospital study reported a 200% increase in PTE incidence between 2001 and 2014. Some evidence did not show increasing incidence, including a Finnish study that found stable incidence from 2011 to 2017. Multiple studies reported increases in paediatric PTE occurrence over recent years. The article notes concern that PTE may be overdiagnosed in some recent research. Age-adjusted hospitalised pericardial disease incidence in NSW rose by 55% from 2004 to 2021. Possible explanations for rising incidence include obesity, oral contraceptive use, improved imaging, greater awareness, more diagnostic evaluation, and survival of children with severe chronic conditions.