Key result
CT successfully diagnoses a complete left pericardial defect in a patient with atypical chest pain.
Why the study?
There is no consistently successful diagnostic method for congenital pericardial defect, and differential diagnosis from other ischemic or structural heart diseases is crucial.
Case Report (n=1)
Computed tomography is a useful non-invasive imaging modality for diagnosing rare congenital pericardial defects.
May support CT for rare pericardial defects; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
Pericardial defect is a rare congenital cardiac disorder. Most patients were asymptomatic but some patients with partial pericardial defect occasionally complain acute symptoms such as angina, syncope, rarely sudden cardiac death. So, differential diagnosis with other ischemic or structural heart disease is crucial in the man-agement of such patients. But there is no consistently successful diagnostic method. In the past, artificial diagnostic pneumothorax was used to document the absence of pericardium. However, it is not easily accepted due to excess morbidity and failure rate. Recently, echocardiography and more often, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging are used to confirm the diagnosis. We experienced a 52 years old male patient with atypical chest pain, who was diagnosed as complete left pericardial defect with computed tomography. (Korean Circulation J 2000;30(10):1281-1284)
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Choi et al. (2000) conducted a case report in Congenital pericardial defect (n=1). Computed tomography was evaluated. Computed tomography successfully diagnosed a complete left pericardial defect in a 52-year-old male patient presenting with atypical chest pain.
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