This case report describes a 37-year-old female who was admitted to our Emergency Department because of shortness of breath. On physical examination, she had dyspnea and tachycardia and blood pressure was 80/50 mmHg with a pulsus paradoxus of 22 mmHg. Neck veins were distended, heart sounds were distant, and dullness was found on both lung bases. Her chest X-ray revealed bilateral pleural effus...

Dengue fever (DF) is an outbreak prone viral disease transmitted by aedes mosquitoes. It is often associated with evidence of plasma leakage due to increased vascular permeability manifested by pleural effusion, ascites, hypoproteinaemia and pericardial effusion. Cases of small pericardial effusion have been reported in association with dengue fever, largely with dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF)...

Pericardial effusion can cause cardiac tamponade physiology with resultant cardiogenic shock and death. Myelofibrosis, the replacement of marrow cavity by fibrous connective tissue, is a secondary complication of a group of disorders known as myeloproliferative neoplasms, which are clonal processes characterized by abnormal proliferative growth of one or more hematopoietic lineages. One consequ...

Of nine patients with pericardial effusion due to various causes, four developed cardiac tamponade. Electrical alternans was present in all four, being total in three and ventricular in one. The alternans corresponded very well with the clinical diagnosis of cardiac tamponade and the radiological signs of a large pericardial effusion. In two patients alternans was present even with heart rates ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the FAST (focused assessment with sonography in trauma) examination for determining traumatic pericardial effusion and intraperitoneal fluid indicative of injury in patients with penetrating anterior chest trauma. METHODS An observational prospective study was conducted over a 30-month period at an urban level I trauma center. FAST was performed in the emergency departme...