Echocardiographic Evaluation of Pericardial Disease
- P. Anthony Chandraratna, MD, MRCP
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
VARIOUS forms of pericardial disease are commonly encountered in clinical practice. Echocardiography is an effective noninvasive method of assessing many different cardiac conditions; this article explores the uses and limitations of echocardiography in evaluating pericardial disease, with a special emphasis on two-dimensional echocardiography.
Pericardial Effusion One of the first applications of echocardiography was its use in diagnosing pericardial effusion.1 The appearance of an echo-free space posterior to the heart, with disappearance or marked reduction of the space at the junction of the left ventricle and left atrium, and absence of motion of the pericardium are the echocardiographic hallmarks of pericardial effusion. The volume of pericardial fluid can be roughly quantitated using M-mode echocardiography. A small, posterior echo-free space denotes a small pericardial effusion, and as the amount of pericardial fluid increases, the posterior space becomes larger. With a large pericardial effusion, a large posterior as well as an anterior
Footnotes
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This article is one of a series sponsored by the American Heart Association.
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Reprint requests to School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 2025 Zonal Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90033 (Dr Chandraratna).
