Bloody Pericardial Effusion with a Huge Pericardial Mass: A Case Report

Abstract

Nowadays, the early diagnosis of tumoral diseases is more possible and accurate with multiple diagnostic imaging modalities such as chest X-ray, echocardiography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging, especially for cardiac tumors which are usually asymptomatic, even in large sizes. In cardiac masses, the patients’ presentations are nonspecific and dependent on the tumor size and site as well as its compressive effect on the adjacent structures. On the other hand, the first and last signs could be sudden cardiac death. However, cardiac masses are either benign or malignant and metastatic in their malignant type, and their definite diagnosis is only possible by surgical tumor resection and tissue biopsy. In this paper, we describe an old patient with severe pericardial effusion and an unusual intrapericardial tumor in transthoracic echocardiography, representing a rare case of a giant ectopic thymoma after surgical resection and pathologic assessment.

Intrapericardial Thymoma Presented as Pericardial Tamponade with Post-Operative Myasthenia Gravis

“…Pericardial thymoma is very rare. To our knowledge, only eight cases of pericardial thymoma have been reported [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. We have summarized the clinical features in Table 1 , and include our case.…”

“…Ectopic thymomas are found most frequently in the cervical region, followed by the lung, pleura and thyroid [ 1 ]. Ectopic pericardial thymoma is very unusual; according to a literature review, eight cases of pericardial thymoma have been reported [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Among thymoma patients, 20% to 25% are associated with myasthenia gravis [ 9 ].…”