…despite medical treatment. Diagnostic drainage in suspected purulent pericarditis, tuberculosis or malignancy. Tamponade is a clinical diagnosis supported by echocardiography: Finding Comment : : Hypotension, distended neck…

…exaggerated inspiratory fall in systemic systolic blood pressure, termed pulsus paradoxus. Tamponade is therefore characterized haemodynamically by elevation and near equalization of diastolic pressures in…

…Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) Post infarction (including Dressler syndrome) Uremia Radiation to the heart Trauma Tuberculousis Neoplasms (cancer)…

…effusion of unclear cause. An effusion not confidently explained by heart failure must be aspirated. Suspected empyema or complicated parapneumonic effusion. Suspected malignancy, tuberculous pleurisy…

…transmural myocardial infarction. Rupture of the free ventricular wall. Neoplasms (particularly breast and lung cancer). Inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma…

…sample. Indications Diagnostic paracentesis: Newly detected ascites — always. Every admission of a patient with known ascites. Clinical deterioration in a cirrhotic patient with ascites: fever…