Supervising Section Editor: Sean O. Henderson, MD Submission history: Submitted June 7, 2012; Revision received: July 5, 2012; Accepted August 3, 2012 Full text available through open access at http://escholarship.org/uc/uciem_westjem DOI: 10.5811/westjem.2012.8.12919 [West J Emerg Med 2013;14(2):152.] University of Calfornia San Francisco, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Critical ...

Although pericarditis and pericardial effusion are common cardiac complications of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), cardiac tamponade is a very rare initial manifestation of this disease. We describe a case of a young male patient in whom cardiac tamponade secondary to a loculated pericardial effusion was the presenting symptom of SLE.

Cardiac tamponade is a rare but serious emergency condition in the pediatric population. As treatment, a pericardial drain is often placed to evacuate the fluid. We present a case of a 4-year-old girl with cardiac tamponade secondary to renal failure. After the tamponade resolved, she suffered cardiovascular collapse upon attempted drain withdrawal. This case highlights an unusual cause for car...

A 57-year-old man was referred to the Emergency Department with epigastric and respiratory dependent pain for six days. The physical examination showed mild jaundice, painful liver and muffled heart sounds. Laboratory tests revealed alanine aminotransferase 14,620 IU/L, bilirubin 10.8 mg/dL and serum lactate 13.9 mmol/L. The chest radiograph revealed diffuse interstitial infiltrate predominantl...

SINCE selective cineangiocardiography has become an integral part of cardiac catheterization, one of the dreaded complications has been that of cardiac perforation associated with the rapid injection of contrast media under high intracatheter pressures. It is the purpose of this communication to report a case of left ventricular perforation during cineangiocardiography in a patient with aortic ...

Abstract A 77-year-old male presenting with acute chest pain and syncope was sent to our emergency room by ambulance. An echocardiogram revealed severe pericardial effusion, thoracic aortic ectasia, mild regurgitation (AR). Computed tomography (CT) scan did not demonstrate dissection. He underwent pericardiocentesis for cardiac tamponade. After three hours of clinical monitoring, the transthora...

Although pericarditis is the most frequent cardiac involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), cardiac tamponade is very rare as an initial manifestation of this disease. We report the case of a 27-year-old patient in whom the diagnosis of SLE was discovered during cardiac tamponade.

A case is described of a 69-year-old woman with dissection of the ascending aorta who developed cardiac tamponade during induction of anaesthesia. The tamponade was diagnosed by a haemodynamic profile showing approximation of the central venous, pulmonary wedge and pulmonary arterial diastolic pressures, and was treated with rapid surgical intervention and drainage of the haemopericardium. Card...

Pericardial tamponade resulting in hemodynamic compromise requiring either pericardiocentesis [Vandyke 1983] or subxiphoid pericardial window has been reported in literature [Armstrong 1984]. There are no large case series, only scattered case reports. Cardiac tamponade is known to affect the diastolic function of the heart but rare reports have documented systolic impairment of the left and ri...

This paper describes the case of a 42-year-old male patient with primary heart malignant solitary fibrous sarcoma presenting with cardiac tamponade. The patient received urgent surgery and adjunctive chemotherapy nevertheless he died 14 months later. To our knowledge, this is the first described case of a primary cardiac tumor causing cardiac tamponade to the point of needing emergency decompre...