[Angiosarcoma of the heart and its spontaneous rupture. A rare cause of effusive-constrictive pericarditis. A case report and review of the literature].

Abstract

The authors present the clinical history of a male 44 year old patient who was hospitalized with the diagnosis of pericardial constriction and effusion and operated on as an emergency because of spontaneous cardiac rupture and was found to have a cardiac adenosarcoma. They review the literature in order to discuss a very rare cause of hemopericardium and constrictive pericarditis with epidemiologic, diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic commentaries and secondly, to try to establish if this type case does not represent a diagnostic problem for the ecocardiographer since an angiosarcoma that occupies the pericardial space can be confused with a hemopericardium. They also mention other imaging studies that are used to better characterize and diagnose these tumors.