Pericardial effusion is a recognized consequence of myxedema. Its incidence is unknown, primarily because of past difficulties in establishing the diagnosis. We studied 33 hypothyroid patients by echocardiography. Ten of the 33 patients (30%) had positive echoes for pericardial effusion. Seven of these ten patients had enlarged hearts on chest X-ray. Five patients had cardiac enlargement but no...

Pericardial effusion is a recognized consequences of myxedema. Its incidence is unknown, primarily because of past difficulties in establishing the diagnosis. We studied 33 hypothyroid patients by echocardiography. Ten of the 33 patients (30%) had positive echoes for pericardial effusion. Seven of these ten patients had enlarged hearts on chest X-ray. Five patients had cardiac enlargement but n...

Pericardial effusion is a common finding in everyday clinical practice. The first challenge to the clinician is to try to establish an etiologic diagnosis. Sometimes, the pericardial effusion can be easily related to a known underlying disease, such as acute myocardial infarction, cardiac surgery, end-stage renal disease or widespread metastatic neoplasm. When no obvious cause is apparent, some...

A 63-year-old man with a history of remote inferior myocardial infarction and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) underwent catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT). Epicardial catheter ablation of the VT was successful at the crux of the heart despite limited mapping within the pericardial space due to pericardial adhesion. Percutaneous subxiphoidal pericardial approach is usually ...

Purulent pericarditis is rarely encountered in the antibiotherapy era, mainly in immunosupressed patients, after cardiac operations, in septicemia. Diagnosis of purulent pericarditis is based upon the analysis of pericardial drainage, obtained through pericardiocentesis or preferably, through a surgical approach. The reported case has following peculiarities: clinical signs of false acute surgi...