Clinic and echocardiographic characteristics of pericardial effusions in a university hospital, Medellín, Colombia

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the clinical and echocardiographic characteristics of pericardial effusions. Methods: Retrospective information was obtained from medical records of all patients who were diagnosed with echocardiographic pericardial effusions. Results: We studied 62 medical records of patients with echocardiographic pericardial effusions. We obtained medical records of 28 (45.2%) patients with mild effusion, 19 (30.6%) with moderate effusion and 15 (24.2%) with severe effusion. Fourteen patients (22.6%) showed inflammatory signs of pericarditis. Inflammatory signs had an Odds Ratio of 5.1. (CI 95% 1.28 to 23) wich was significant (p = 0.006). Uremia was the most common diagnosis in all patients (22.6%) followed by metastatic tumors (14.5%), pyogenic pericarditis (11.3%), acute idiopathic pericarditis (11.3%) and others. Conclusions: In almost all patients, etiology of pericardial effusion is the same of the underlying condition, but if the cause is unknown, the size of effusion, inflammatory signs and the presence of cardiac tamponade may help suggest etiology.