Diagnostic Value of the Biochemical Composition of Pericardial Effusions in Patients Undergoing Pericardiocentesis

Causes of moderate to large pericardial effusion requiring pericardiocentesis in 140 Han Chinese patients

“…Exudative pericardial effusion can be divided into malignant and nonmalignant types, and it is usually necessary to perform pericardiocentesis. Although tuberculosis is rare in developed countries, tuberculosis is still the major etiology of the nonmalignant type of pericardial effusion in China [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17].…”

“…In our study, there were many similarities between the patients in these two groups with regard to clinical characteristics, routine pericardial fluid parameters, and classical biochemical parameters. There are a number of patients who have malignant pericardial effusion but show no evidence of cancer cells or primary tumor lesions, making it easy to misdiagnose tuberculous pericardial effusion [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. Malignant pericardial effusion is generally caused by cancerometastasis; however, primary pericardium tumors such as mesothelioma, sarcoma, and cardiac hemangioma are rare [18].…”

“…The most important rescue procedure is pericardiocentesis. The therapy and prognosis of pericardial effusion are mainly dependent on the underlying diseases [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. While modern medicine has made great progress, there are still many patients with exudative pericardial effusion, in particular bloody pericardial effusion, who cannot be diagnosed early and correctly, which delays the required treatment.…”

2015 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of pericardial diseases

“…Uzyskany płyn może mieć jawny charakter ropny. Mała wartość wskaźnika stężenie glukozy w płynie osierdziowym/surowicy (średnia wartość 0,3) oraz leukocytoza z dużym odsetkiem granulocytów obojętnochłon-nych w płynie osierdziowym (średnia komórkowość 2,8/µl, 92% neutrofili) pozwala różnicować wydzielinę ropną i gruźliczą (wskaźnik stężenia glukozy 0,7, komórkowość 1,7/µl, 50% neutrofili) od zmian nowotworowych (wskaźnik stężenia glukozy 0,8, komórkowość 3,3/µl, 55% neutrofili) [150]. Porcję płynu należy poddać badaniom bakteriologicznym, mykologicznym i w kierunku gruźlicy, a z próbki krwi uzyskać stosowne posiewy oraz inne wyniki badań w zależności od obrazu klinicznego [12].…”

Minoxidil Associated Pericardial Effusion: A Case Report

“…The patient's creatinine throughout the hospital course ranged from 1.0 to 2.0 with appropriate urine output and a BUN of 11 -28. Minoxidil was discontinued at that time due to high suspicion that the medication was the culprit for the recurrent pericardial effusion [4][5][6]. Repeat echo on post operation day 7 of pericardial window showed the estimated ejection fraction to be in the range of 55%.…”