Echocardiographic quantitation of pericardial effusion

This study was undertaken to test the validity of M-mode echocardiographic quantitation of pericardial effusion. M-mode estimate of the volume of pericardial effusion in 27 patients was compared with the actual volume of pericardial effusion removed during surgical pericardial drainage. The 16 two-dimensional echocardiographic studies in patients with small, moderate, and large pericardial effusions were reviewed to examine the distribution of pericardial fluid around the heart. Although there was good correlation between the echocardiographic estimate and the actual volume removed during surgery (r = 0.78), significant overestimation and underestimation were noted. Our findings suggest that the errors in the estimate could be attributed in part to difficulties in precise measurement of the epicardial and pericardial landmarks and in part to nonuniform distribution of pericardial fluid around the heart.