Does This Patient With a Pericardial Effusion Have Cardiac Tamponade?

Abstract

Among patients with cardiac tamponade, a minority will not have dyspnea, tachycardia, elevated jugular venous pressure, or cardiomegaly on chest radiograph. A pulsus paradoxus greater than 10 mm Hg among patients with a pericardial effusion helps distinguish those with cardiac tamponade from those without. Diagnostic certainty of the presence of tamponade requires additional testing.

Subxiphoid Tube Pericardiostomy in the Management of Pericardial Effusion: Our Experience

“…In our series, there is male preponderance which is what obtains in most studies without any statistically significant difference [7,[13][14]. Dyspnea was the predominant symptom in our patients and majority of our patients presented in tamponade which has been reported as the commonest mode of presentation in patients with massive pericardial effusion or posttraumatic acute haemopericardium [1,4,[15][16]. This is always the case in our environment because majority of patients will only present when symptoms are unbearable.…”

Cardiac Tamponade After Removal of Temporary Pacer Wires

“…Dyspnea as a symptom had a sensitivity range of 87% to 89%; 4 other features that occurred in most patients (tachycardia, pulsus paradoxus, elevated jugular venous pressure, and cardiomegaly on chest radiograph) had lower sensitivities. 9 In our study, documentation of dyspnea matched documentation of bleeding in frequency, making it an important symptom (along with the sign tachypnea), for nurses to monitor after TPWR.…”

First report of cardiac tamponade in pediatric-onset mixed connective tissue disease

“…The symptoms of cardiac tamponade have been well documented and are no different when presenting in a patient with MCTD. The prototypical signs and symptoms include tachycardia, tachypnea, dyspnea, pleuritic chest pain, JVD, muffled heart sounds, friction rub, pulsus paradoxus, hypotension, cardiomegaly, ECG with low voltages or electrical alternans and an abnormal echocardiogram [12]. Our patient demonstrated all the classic findings with the exception of hypotension, the latest manifestation of tamponade [12].…”