Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has a heart condition, his spokesman has said, after he flew to Saudi Arabia on Monday for medical treatment.

Mr Yar'Adua has acute pericarditis, or inflammation of the lining around the heart, his spokesman told the BBC.

He said the president, 58, was responding well to treatment. Officials earlier denied rumours that the president was seriously ill.

Mr Yar'Adua has had a chronic kidney condition for at least 10 years.

He has been unable to perform a number of official duties because of recurring health problems.

At about 3pm Friday November 20, after he returned from the Abuja Central Mosque where he performed Muslim prayer, President Yar'Adua complained of a left-sided severe chest pain
Olusegun Adeniyi
Presidential spokesman

President Yar'Adua has twice been flown to Germany for emergency treatment and it is the second time he has visited hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

He has refused to say exactly what condition he suffers from, and has repeatedly said in interviews that his life is "in the hands of God".

Acute inflammatory pericarditis usually lasts one to three weeks and does not lead to further problems, according to the American Heart Association

About 20% of pericarditis patients have a recurrence within months or, rarely, within years, it says.

Presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi said Mr Yar'Adua felt pains after performing Friday prayers last week.

"At about 3pm Friday November 20, after he returned from the Abuja Central Mosque where he performed Muslim prayer, President Yar'Adua complained of a left-sided severe chest pain," he said, reports Reuters news agency.

Mr Adeniyi said the initial diagnosis was pericarditis, which has since been confirmed.

Officials had earlier been quoted as saying the president intended to make the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca this week.

Analysts say his continued ill-health poses a problem for Nigeria's constitution.

If he were to step down or die, he would be replaced by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the country's southern Niger Delta region.

But according to the ruling People's Democratic Party's own formula for sharing power among the country's regions, the president must be a northerner.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8380520.stm

Hopefully this puts an end to the rumor mongers.
He remains alive, at least till the next news of his death comes up

Kidney. . . Charg Strauss. . . Now heart problems
Lawd hammercy!

Clearly the guy is on a critical lists as far as his health is concerned.
These are all serious ailments and his prognosis dont look too good.

And I'm sure he won't resign to treat himself because of the last sentence in the quoted text

I just watched it on NTA 9pm news

Acute pericarditis is an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart --- the pericardium --- usually lasting < 6 weeks. It is by far the most common condition affecting the pericardium.

Causes
According to a recent article, the most common causes of acute pericarditis include:

(35%) Neoplastic
(23%) Autoimmune
(21%) Viral - adenovirus, enterovirus, cytomegalovirus, influenza virus, hepatitis B virus, and herpes simplex virus, etc
(6%) Bacterial (other than tuberculosis)
(6%) Uremia
(4%) Tuberculosis
(4%) Idiopathic
(remaining) trauma, drugs, post-AMI, myocarditis, dissecting aortic aneurysm, radiation

Causes
According to a recent article[1], the most common causes of acute pericarditis include:

(35%) Neoplastic
(23%) Autoimmune
(21%) Viral - adenovirus, enterovirus, cytomegalovirus, influenza virus, hepatitis B virus, and herpes simplex virus, etc
(6%) Bacterial (other than tuberculosis)
(6%) Uremia
(4%) Tuberculosis
(4%) Idiopathic
(remaining) trauma, drugs, post-AMI, myocarditis, dissecting aortic aneurysm, radiation

Symptoms and Signs
Chest pain is one of the common symptoms of acute pericarditis. It is usually of sudden onset, occurring in the anterior chest and may be pleuritic in nature --- that is, sharp and worsens with inspiration, due to concomitant pleural inflammation. The pain may be alleviated with sitting up and leaning forward while worsened with lying down, and also may radiate to the back, to one or both trapezius ridges. However, the pain can also be dull and steady, resembling the chest pain in an acute myocardial infarction. As with any chest pain, other causes must also be ruled out, such as GERD, pulmonary embolism, muscular pain, etc.

Main article: chest pain
Pericardial rub is a very specific sign of acute pericarditis, meaning the presence of this sign invariably indicates presence of disease. However, absence of this sign does not rule out disease. This rub can be best heard by the diaphragm of the stethoscope at the left sternal border arising as a squeaky or scratching sound, resembling the sound of leather rubbing against each other. This sound should be distinguished from the sound of a murmur, which is similar but sounds more like a "swish" sound than a scratching sound. The pericardial rub is said to be generated from the friction generated by the two inflamed layers of the pericardium; however, even a large pericardial effusion does not necessarily present a rub. The rub is best heard during the maximal movement of the heart within the pericardial sac, namely, during atrial systole, ventricular systole, and the filling phase of early ventricular diastole.

Fever may be present since this is an inflammatory process.

Complications
One of the most feared complications of acute pericarditis is cardiac tamponade. Cardiac tamponade is accumulation of enough fluid in the pericardial space --- pericardial effusion --- to cause serious obstruction to the inflow of blood to the heart. This condition is fatal if not treated promptly.

Treatment
Patients with uncomplicated acute pericarditis can generally be treated and followed up in an outpatient clinic. However, those with high risk factors for developing complications (see above) will need to be admitted to an inpatient service, most likely an ICU setting. High risk patients include:[8]

subacute onset
high fever (> 100.4 F/38 C) and leukocytosis
development of cardiac tamponade
large pericardial effusion (echo-free space > 20 mm) resistant to NSAID treatment
immunocompromised
history of oral anticoagulation therapy
acute trauma
failure to respond to seven days of NSAID treatment
Pericardiocentesis is a procedure whereby the fluid in a pericardial effusion is removed through a needle. It is performed under the following conditions:

presence of moderate or severe cardiac tamponade
diagnostic purpose for suspected purulent, tuberculosis, or neoplastic pericarditis
persistent symptomatic pericardial effusion

reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_pericarditis

my question is, does yar adua and that idiot that imposed him on nigeria and nigerians aware of this health problems?

asking the obvious

@chidichris

Personally, I sympathize with and pray for the president and his family. He was obviously a very religious, largely upright individual.

In a different country and without this condition he probably would have made a good president - as people hoped.

He was obviously aware of his own condition, but his own ambition and the kingmakers need to preserve their continued hold on Nigeria, plus the lack of space for any serious minded individual on the Nigerian political landscape, got him into this situation.

Until Nigeria wrestles itself from these people that have dominated our polity for more than 43 years we are going nowhere fast.

chidichris:

my question is, does yar adua and that idiot that imposed him on nigeria and nigerians aware of this health problems?

That man shld honourably resign.

this is actually why i came to nairaland tonight. i was going to create a new thread but i guess i can post my info on this thread.

so here it is; the rumor going around on wallstreet is that the president of nigeria, umaru musa yar adua is actually dead. either he's already dead or his heart has stopped and he's on life support. apparently they're delaying announcement to stave off potential crisis in nigeria.

i don't know how true it is but this was contained in some industry "gossips" that usually comes around every morning so investors can make appropriate decisions. The firms that sponsor the acquisition of these infos spend a lot of money acquiring such information and in the past, these gossips have proven to be true. When Zelaya succesfully crossed back into Honduras, i heard it through this same medium about 12 hours before any of the news media broadcast it. Anyhow, let's see what happens.

so 12 hours b4 u die will u know that u r dying?lol just jokin man. Hope it isnt true tho