Pericardial Tuberculosis

Abstract

A 53-year-old malnourished man, presented to the emergency room with 2 months of poor appetite, malaise, high spiking fevers, 10 Kg weight loss and night sweats; he also noted progressive exertional dyspnea and anterior chest pain developing over the last 2 days. On physical examination he was afebrile, had 90/60 arterial pressure, 100 × min heart rate, pulsus paradoxus, jugular vein engorgement, sudden inspiratory splitting of the second heart sound, and soft heart sounds on auscultation. A contrasted tomography of the thorax showed a large pericardial effusion with pericardial contrast enhancing and no pulmonary opacities. Histologic examination of pericardial tissue showed multinucleated giant cells with scarce acid-fast bacillae, and on pericardial culture grew Mycobacterium tuberculosis.