Why the study?
Purulent S. pneumoniae pericarditis is rare but carries high mortality, particularly with tamponade, and bedside TTE is an underutilized tool during emergency presentation and cardiac resuscitation.
Bedside echocardiography is a crucial tool for the rapid diagnosis and management of life-threatening purulent pericarditis and cardiac tamponade, even in patients with COVID-19 coinfection.
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Bedside TTE may aid diagnosis of rare pneumococcal purulent pericarditis with tamponade; leaves open effect on outcomes.
Purulent pericarditis due to Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) has been increasingly rare since the advent of antibiotics; however, it still carries a high mortality rate, especially in the setting of tamponade. Bedside transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) is a useful, cheap, and underutilized tool that can aid in the diagnosis, treatment, and further management of patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain, as well as during cardiac resuscitation. In this report, we present a case of an acute purulent S. pneumoniae pericarditis of an unknown primary source in a patient coinfected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia, resulting in cardiac tamponade and cardiac arrest that resolved with the aid of bedside echocardiography-guided pericardiocentesis. We attempt to highlight the importance of clinicians using echocardiography to aid in their clinical decision-making, demonstrating it as a fast and effective tool capable of providing instantaneous feedback.
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Masarweh et al. (2023) studied this question.
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