A case of epipericardial fat necrosis

Epipericardial fat necrosis.

Epipericardial fat necrosis.

A 57-year-old man with no cardiovascular risk factors or other disease history of interest developed acute chest pain without clear signs of angina. He came to the emergency department, where the results of the electrocardiogram and an initial test for markers of myocardial injury were normal. We performed cardiac computed tomography, which ruled out the existence of coronary artery lesions. Ho...

Epipericardial fat necrosis: an unusual cause of chest pain

Epipericardial fat necrosis is a rare, benign, and self-limited cause of acute chest pain, with only 35 cases reported in the literature.(1,2) It presents as new-onset pleuritic chest pain in otherwise healthy patients, and, therefore, it is an important differential diagnosis for acute chest pain in this group of individuals. The pathophysiology has been labeled as idiopathic or related to an ...

Epipericardial fat necrosis: increasing the rate of diagnosis by disseminating knowledge within a single institution

1. Instituto Estadual do Cérebro Paulo Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. 2. Hospital Casa de Portugal – 3D Diagnose, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. 3. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Mailing address: Dr. Bruno Niemeyer de Freitas Ribeiro. Instituto Estadual do Cérebro Paulo Niemeyer – Departamento de Radiologia. Rua do Rezende, 156, Centro. Rio de Jan...

Epipericardial fat necrosis – a rare cause of pleuritic chest pain: case report and review of the literature

Epipericardial fat necrosis (EPFN) is an uncommon cause of chest pain. Typically manifesting as severe acute chest pain, EPFN can be mistaken for a serious disorder, such as pulmonary embolism or myocardial infarction. We report a case of EPFN, diagnosed tentatively based on clinical and radiographic findings, with documented resolution of the lesion on chest CT. According to our literature sea...