[Echocardiography in the diagnosis of pericardial effusion and tamponade]

Fifty-seven patients who had presented pericardial effusions, compressive in ten cases, were subjected to M. mode echocardiography in order to identify specific signs of cardiac tamponade during major effusions. Certain criteria were of no diagnostic value: right and left ventricular diameter, mitral valve opening amplitude, and aortic diameter (p greater than 0.1). Apart from known hemodynamic and clinical signs, one must bear in mind two echographic signs that are specific for tamponade and disappear after drainage: protosystolic notching on the anterior wall of the right ventricle appearing 0.04 s after QRS, and a slope EF less than 50 mm/s.