A 34-year-old man was referred to our institution for treatment of pyothorax that had proven to be incurable with antibiotics. His symptom was acute left chest pain. Abnormal findings were absent in the laboratory data and an electrocardiogram. A chest radiograph showed a left pericardial shadow and pleural effusion (Picture A). Chest CT revealed a mass adjacent to the thickened pericardium wit...

1 Jackson Heart Study, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi 39216-4505, USA 2 National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study and Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA,USA 3 Department of Preventive Medicine, University ...

A 55-year-old woman presented at the emergency department with acute pleuritic chest pain. The pain was located on the left side of the sternum. Her relevant medical history revealed gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. Physical examination, laboratory investigations and a plain chest radiograph were normal. The patient was thought to be suffering from gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and was tr...

INTRODUCTION Pericardial fat is emerging as an important parameter for cardiovascular risk stratification. We extended previously developed quantitation of thoracic fat volume (TFV) from non-contrast coronary calcium (CC) CT scans to also quantify pericardial fat volume (PFV) and investigated the associations of PFV and TFV with CC and the Metabolic Syndrome (METS). METHODS TFV is quantified ...

Investigating the adipose tissue surrounding heart and large vessels, so-called pericardial fat, is of great interest for researchers. Pericardial fat currently being considered a new cardiovascular risk factor, which forces us to reconsider pathogenesis various disorders. The article describes concept including its heterogeneous structure origin determining functional role. In addition, specif...

Obesity is an established risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF).1 In fact, it has been reported that the increasing prevalence of obesity in the United States could account for up to 60 % of the increasing incidence of age and sex adjusted AF.2 Adipose tissue has been shown to be highly metabolically active and secretes several proinflammatory mediators; however, different fat depots differ ...

Background: Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and mortality. Significant weight loss has beneficial effects on left ventricular structure, in particular on regression of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). We therefore evaluated the consequences of significant weight loss on left ventricular morphology, hemodynamics and pericardial fat. Methods: We performed volumetric cardiac...