Hemorrhagic cardiac tamponade: a clinicopathologic correlation

Staphylococcus aureus pericarditis and recurrent episodes of hemorrhagic cardiac tamponade developed in a 31-year-old man. He later died of exsanguination and at autopsy was found to have a ruptured infective pseudoaneurysm of the aortic arch. When hemorrhagic pericardial effusions of undetermined cause are encountered, the heart and great vessels should be evaluated as potential sources of the hemorrhage.