[The biopsy in the diagnosis of pericardial involvement by malignant tumor]

We performed pericardial biopsy by subxiphoid approach in twelve patients (eight men, four women) with cardiac tamponade or pericardial effusion without low cardiac output, in order to search for the underlying disease. Five patients (41%) had pericardial biopsy with malignant neoplastic invasion. In seven patients (59%) the biopsy was nonspecific; in these patients, the diagnosis was made by another methods. We concluded that the pericardial biopsy is a safe method, with high especificity but low sensibility in the diagnosis of malignant pericardial invasion.