Extensive mediastinal aspergillosis presenting with dyspnoea and cardiac tamponade symptoms.

An 18-year-old girl was admitted to the Aga Khan Hospital, Pakistan in April 2014 with progressively worsening shortness of breath, orthopnoea, malaise, and low-grade fever for 3 years, and generalised body swelling for 6 months. She had no significant medical history or trauma. On physical examination she was a mediumbuilt girl with a heart rate of 120 beats/min, raised jugular venous pressure, and bilateral pedal pitting oedema. Chest auscultation revealed muffled heart sounds with bilateral basilar lung crepitations. The chest X-ray showed wide mediastinum with clear lung markings. The computed tomographic (CT) scan showed a conglomerate undefined mass in the anterior, middle, and posterior mediastinum encasing the entire heart and great vessels with most marked extension in the retrocardiac area (Fig 1). The echo showed a large echo-dense mass compressing the heart with invasion into the left atrium (LA), obliterating most of the LA cavity. Hong Kong Med J 2017;23:202–3 DOI: 10.12809/hkmj154790