The pericardium plays an important role in optimizing cardiac motion and chamber pressures and serves as a barrier to pathology. In addition to pericardial anatomy and function, this review article covers a variety of pericardial conditions, with mention of potential pitfalls encountered during interpretation of diagnostic imaging. Normal and abnormal appearance of pericardium on CT and MR imag...

Pericardiotomy is the first essential step for the exposure of the coronary artery in off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) via a median sternotomy. After the dissection of the pericardium from the pleura, a longitudinal pericardiotomy from the apex to the aortic reflection was employed. The pericardiotomy was extended transversely to make a trapezoidal flap. By the traction of the left peric...

Constrictive pericarditis is caused by fibrosis and calcification of the pericardium, which inhibits diastolic filling of the heart. Chest roentgenogram can show the calcification as a mass or sheet over the heart and computed tomography scan allows anatomic delineation of the pericardium and determines the extent of calcification. We reported a case of eggshell calcification of idiopathic chro...