A 68-year-old woman visited the emergency department twice with symptoms of acute heart failure including shortness of breath, general weakness, and abdominal distension. Laboratory findings showed extremely low level of serum hemoglobin at 1.4 g/dL. Echocardiographic examination demonstrated dilated left ventricular cavity with systolic dysfunction and moderate amount of pericardial effusion. ...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Surgical subxiphoid drainage of the pericardial cavity has been established as a safe and effective method of treatment of pericardial effusion; however, the risk factors affecting survival of these patients have not been clarified. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors affecting the short-term and long-term survival of patients with pericardial effusion sub...

In this study, a case of traumatic reticulopericarditis was described in a goat. Clinically, the animal exhibited poor general condition characterized by weakness and dyspnea. At necropsy; ascites and local fibrinous peritonitis were observed. There were severe adhesions between thoracal cavity, diaphragma and reticulum in which antero-ventral region corroded needle of 5 cm length. In thoracal ...

Background To determine the transmural pressure-dimension relations of the right atrium (RA) and right ventricle (RV) before and after pericardiectomy, six open-chest dogs were instrumented with pericardial balloons placed over the RA and RV free walls. Methods and Results RA appendage dimensions and RV free-wall segment lengths were measured using sonomicrometry. Intact-pericardium RA and RV t...

This study was designed to identify the ultrasound echoes originating from the left ventricle. Injections of indocyanine green and saline were made directly in the left ventricular cavity via a cardiac catheter in patients undergoing routine diagnostic cardiac catheterization. The injections produced a cloud of echoes that filled the left ventricular cavity and outlined the left side of the int...

Pneumopericardium is defined as the accumulation of air in the pericardial cavity (1). Many cases have since been reported, mostly due to blunt or penetrating chest injuries in adults. Spontaneous pneumopericardium is seen very rarely (2). The mortality rate for patients with pneumopericardium who present with symptoms of tamponade is 50% (3). We present the case of a 27-year-old 32-week-pregna...

Primary cardiac angiosarcoma is a rare disease of difficult diagnosis and poor prognosis frequently associated with recurring hemopericardium. We report the case of a 30-year-old female with a right atrial angiosarcoma and spontaneous rupture to the pericardial cavity, who was diagnosed during an emergency exploratory thoracotomy, whose indication was cardiac tamponade. This is the 8th case rep...

An adult with an unusual combination of mesodennal defects is presented. A striking finding was the hermation of a major portion of the large bowel into the pericardial cavity through a foramen of Morgagni defect. In addition, the patient exhibited a variety of muscular skeletal anomalies, Monckeberg sclerosis of the muscular arteries, and complete heart block. Urinary mucopolysaccharide excret...

Three recent cases of pneumopericardium after closed-chest injury are described. The mechanism of pericardial inflation suspected in each was pleuropericardial laceration in the presence of an intrathoracic air leak. Deflation of the pericardium was achieved by underwater seal drainage of the right pleural cavity in the first patient, during thoracotomy for repair of tracheobronchial rupture in...

Solitary intra-cardiac cavity tuberculoma is extremely rare and often only diagnosed during a post-mortem. We report a case of right atrial tuberculoma causing right atrial outflow tract obstruction in an immune-compromised man. The diagnosis of cardiac tuberculoma was made through the detection of mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA by tuberculosis-polymerase chain reaction in the pericardial fluid...