AS EARLY as 1889 Cohnheim' demonstrated by injecting oil into the pericardial cavity that an increase in intrapericardial pressure causes a rise in peripheral venous pressure and a fall in peripheral arterial pressure. These same effects of cardiac tamponade have been confirmed by many others both in the experimental anima12P"' and in patients with pericardial effusion.12-15 Cohnheim performed ...

A 35-year-old Moroccan man presented with pain in the upper left abdomen for one day. He had a 13-year history of high-dose albendazole treatment for inoperable cystic cardiac echinococcosis and dilated, but stable cardiomyopathy. Physical examination demonstrated a visible and palpable mass pulsating synchronous with every heartbeat in the left upper abdomen (Supplementary Video 1). Cardiac ma...

BACKGROUND Needle access or drainage of pericardial effusion, especially when small, entails risk of bystander tissue injury or operator uncertainty about proposed trajectories. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) might allow enhanced imaging guidance. METHODS AND RESULTS We used real-time CMR to guide subxiphoid pericardial access in naïve swine using commercial 18G titanium puncture nee...

BACKGROUND Delayed hyperenhancement (DHE) of the pericardium usually represents ongoing inflammation and may identify patients with constrictive pericarditis that will improve with anti-inflammatory therapy. However, a quantitative assessment of pericardial DHE has not been performed, and the hierarchical relationship among clinical factors, inflammatory markers, and pericardial DHE is unknown....

BACKGROUND Purulent pericarditis is a rare but life-threatening illness. Often, it may be masked by the primary infectious etiology like pneumonia, endocarditis, or CNS infection, leading to a delay in diagnosis and treatment. Echocardiography is the modality of choice for estimating the presence and size of pericardial effusion and detecting presence of tamponade. CASE REPORT We present a ca...

Parameters of hemocyte populations have been considered as relevant indicators of bivalve health and are currently used in immunotoxicological studies. Hemocytes in hemolymph can be collected by puncturing either the pericardial cavity or the adductor muscle sinus with a syringe. Flow cytometry is a methodological approach that is increasingly being used in laboratories for the study of hemocyt...

OBJECTIVE the study aimed to evaluate the prognostic importance of an incidental small pericardial effusion found on echocardiography. METHODS we identified 10,067 consecutive patients undergoing echocardiography at 1 of 3 laboratories. Patients were excluded if they were referred for evaluation of the pericardium (n = 133), had cardiac surgery within the previous 60 days (n = 393), had a mod...

To determine whether pericardial liquid pressure accurately measures pericardial constraint, we developed a technique in which a catheter was positioned perpendicular to the epicardial surface. This device, which occupies little or no pericardial space, couples the thin film of liquid to a transducer. In six open-chest dogs, we also measured left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) ...

We report the first case of foetal pericardial teratoma, treated successfully in utero by pericardio-amniotic shunting, and review the relevant literature. Foetal treatment improves survival in case of hydrops. Foetal pericardio-amniotic shunting could possibly be an alternative to serial pericardiocentesis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Tuberculous (TB) pericarditis is a major cause of constrictive pericarditis requiring pericardiectomy. We sought to determine initial prognostic factors in patients with TB pericarditis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We evaluated initial presentation and clinical outcomes (mean follow-up 32±27 months) in 60 consecutive patients newly diagnosed with TB pericarditis. RESULTS ...