Detection of pericardial heart disease by computed tomography

The findings on computed tomography (CT) in 10 cases of pericardial disease, nine of which were surgically confirmed, are presented. The 10th patient (Case 10), whose CT diagnosis was 'pericarditis', was found to have a myxosarcoma at surgery. In some of these cases, echocardiographic and conventional radiographic investigation gave inconclusive information regarding the underlying pathology. Our results support the conclusion that CT complements echocardiography: in the quantitative and qualitative assessment of pericardial effusions, in the localisation of space-occupying lesions involving the pericardium and in diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis. As echocardiography is so very much operator-dependent, CT may well be a more reliable method of obtaining a result which indicates both the diagnosis and the extent of the disease.