Key result
A 54-year-old woman with stage IV Müllerian adenocarcinoma developed a rare and fatal cardiac tamponade requiring emergent pericardiocentesis.
Case Report (n=1)
No
Müllerian adenocarcinoma can present with rapid clinical deterioration due to malignant pleural effusion and cardiac tamponade.
Rapid post-thoracocentesis deterioration in advanced cancer warrants tamponade evaluation; hypothesis-generating for pre-procedural echocardiography.
A 54-year-old woman with a past medical history of untreated stage IV Müllerian adenocarcinoma presented for dyspnea. She was found to have a large right-sided pleural effusion through basic radiology and clinically improved after a CT-guided therapeutic thoracocentesis. However, the patient rapidly deteriorated shortly afterward. A broader workup that included echocardiography revealed a large pericardial effusion with tamponade physiology. The patient underwent an emergent pericardiocentesis, which briefly improved hemodynamics, but her clinical status kept declining until she eventually expired. Subsequent cytology of the pleural and pericardial fluid revealed malignant cells of Müllerian origin.
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Maaliki et al. (2021) conducted a case report in Müllerian adenocarcinoma (n=1). Pericardiocentesis was evaluated. A 54-year-old woman with stage IV Müllerian adenocarcinoma developed a rare and fatal cardiac tamponade requiring emergent pericardiocentesis.
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