CT in Tuberculous Constrictive Pericarditis

CT Findings in Patients With Pericardial Effusion: Differentiation of Malignant and Benign Disease

“…As described in previous reports [9,11,34], tuberculous pericardial effusion can manifest as abnormal pericardial thickening. Seven of 11 cases (63.6%) of benign pericardial thickening in our study were associated with tuberculous pericarditis (six cases of smooth and one case of irregular thickening).…”

“…In addition, associated thoracic changes can be evaluated because of the larger field of view inherent in CT. Previous reports [6][7][8][9][10] have suggested that malignant pericardial effusion and tuberculous pericardial effusion may be associated with nodular or uneven pericardial thickening. To the best of our knowledge, however, the diagnostic performance of CT in differentiating malignant and benign pericardial effusion has not been fully elucidated in the clinical literature.…”

Pericarditis constrictiva - eine Differentialdiagnose bei therapierefraktärem Aszites

“…Computertomographie und Kernspintomographie haben in der Diagnostik einen hohen Stellenwert, da sich die Perikardverdickungen und Perikardverkalkungen mit diesen Verfahren meist überlagerungsfrei darstellen lassen. Dies ist insbesondere auch bei der Differentialdiagnose zur restriktiven Kardiomyopathie hilfreich, da Echokardiographie und Herzkatheteruntersuchung ähnliche Befunde ergeben können (7,8).…”

Maximal thickness of the normal human pericardium assessed by electron-beam computed tomography

“…2) [1,11,13,21]. Three measurements were made for each patient: one measurement on one slice between the first and seventh slice (level 1: measure m1), one measurement between the eighth and the fourteenth slice (level 2: m2), and one measurement between the fifteenth and twentieth slice (level 3: m3).…”

“…The thickness of the pericardium may be significantly influenced by dimensional alterations occurring during the cardiac cycle and may make quantitative measurement of the moving structure inadequate. Consequently, in clinical practice, pericardial thickening is usually defined as being > 3 mm [13] or 4 mm [9,18]. With CT scans with continuous rotation, the time to acquire all the projections cannot be decreased to less than 0.7 s. During this period cardiac movement induces a change in the position of the pericardium between the first and the last projection of the acquisition.…”