Case Index - - March 2009 - Case of the Month.
Scroll down to the bottom for the final answer.
Signalment: 9 year old female spayed Pug
History: On the thoracic radiographs, she has a severely enlarged globoid heart
Image 1: The patient is on dorsal decumbency and the probe is put on the intercostal space near by the heart.
Questions:
- What are your ultrasonographic findings?
- What is your ultrasonographic diagnosis?
- Additional Imaging options?
Answer:
- Anechoic fluid around the heart
- Pericardial Effusion
- Echocardiography
Result of this patient: 1.2 cm mixed echoic mass at right AV groove. Large volume pericardial free fluid. No evidence of right heart failure or tamponade.
Differential diagnosis: right atrial hemangiosarcoma
Reference:
Pericardiocentesis and Principles of Echocardiographic Imaging in the Patient with Cardiac Neoplasia
Josh Gidlewski, DVM, and Jean-Paul Petrie, DVM, Dip ACVIM
Clin Tech Small Anim Pract. 2003 May;18(2):131-4. Review.
