A 4-month-old infant with severe respiratory distress and cardiomegaly was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy rather than cardiac tamponade.
Infantile hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can present with clinical and radiographic signs mimicking cardiac tamponade, requiring emergent echocardiography for accurate diagnosis and appropriate management.
Absolute Event Rate: 0% vs 0%
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in infancy often follows a rapidly progressive clinical course, with many cases becoming fulminant and fatal. We reported a case of a 4-month-old infant with worsening breathlessness. While admitted, she was in severe respiratory distress and appeared drowsy. We also noted indiscernible heart sounds from physical examination and cardiomegaly with a globular cardiac silhouette from chest X-ray. Considering her distressing clinical presentation, we suspected cardiac tamponade and performed an emergent transthoracic echocardiography to confirm our suspicion. Echocardiogram, however, demonstrated only mild pericardial effusion-insufficient to explain her symptoms. Moreover, we found exceedingly thick myocardium consistent with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, so we initially focused our treatment strategy on congestion relief.
Sembiring et al. (Thu,) reported a other. A 4-month-old infant with severe respiratory distress and cardiomegaly was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy rather than cardiac tamponade.