useful if practicable because this is invariably raised in acute myocardial infarction but is normal in pulmonary embolism. A "paradoxical" arterial pulse, which falls at the onset of inspiration and rises on expiration by more than 15 mm. Hgso that the change is detectable by the finger palpating the femoral pulse-is almost invariably present in acute cardiac tamponade from pericardial effusio...

Background. Cardiac tamponade after cardiac surgical procedures is often associated with hemodynamically significant localized pericardial effusions. The localized collection of pericardial effusion in the postoperative period and the atypical presentation of cardiac tamponade limit the use of conventional clinical and echocardiographic signs usually seen with a circumferential pericardial effu...

AIM To assess the incidence and timing of cardiac rupture following streptokinase (SK) administration in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS We analyzed retrospectively the clinical sheets of AMI patients treated at the Coronary Care Unit in University Hospital Split, Croatia, between January 1, 1996, and December 31, 1998. We selected the patients who died after SK administration (1.5...