Myxedema With Cardiac Tamponade and Pericardial Effusion of "Gold Paint" Appearance

Abstract

WHILE pericardial effusion appears to be a frequent occurrence in patients with myxedema,1-3the development of cardiac tamponade in hypothyroid patients is distinctly unusual. Four reports of this association have appeared previously,4-7but documentation of either tamponade or myxedema has been incomplete in these cases. Patients with myxedema described by Marks and Roof8and Harrell and Johnston9may have had tamponade, although the possibility was not emphasized in their reports. A documented case of cardiac tamponade in a patient with primary myxedema is reported here. Of further interest was the presence of "gold paint" pericardial effusion in this patient, another uncommon finding in myxedema10and not previously reported in the cases where tamponade has occurred. Report of a Case A 76-year-old white woman was admitted to the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center for the first time in December 1966, complaining of low back pain of several