Clinical-echocardiographic correlations in pericardial effusion

This study evaluates the clinical picture of 100 consecutive patients with pericardial effusion. Patients were divided into two groups depending upon the etiology of the effusion. Group A patients (49 subjects) usually presented with a typical picture of acute pericarditis. Group B patients (51 subjects) had a less acute presentation and only 35% had been diagnosed definitely as having pericardial disease prior to performing the echocardiographic study. The presence of faint heart sounds, right heart failure or microvoltage on the ECG correlated statistically with the amount of fluid but the large dispersion of the results prevented the clinician from inferring the amount of fluid from the presence or absence of these signs. Cardiomegaly on X-ray was significantly related to the amount of fluid and allowed a better separation between patients with small to moderate and patients with moderate to large effusions.