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Case Reports
. 2021 Feb 19;13(2):e13438.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.13438.

An Unusual Presentation of COVID-19: Hemorrhagic Pericardial Effusion With Tamponade Physiology

Brian Foster  1 , Adnan Liaqat  1 , Anjula Chib  1 , Scott S Bolton  2 , Arthur C Kendig  3
Affiliations
Case Reports

An Unusual Presentation of COVID-19: Hemorrhagic Pericardial Effusion With Tamponade Physiology

Brian Foster et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

A 44-year-old woman with a history of factor V Leiden deficiency and recurrent pulmonary emboli was diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) three weeks prior presented to her local ED with severe chest pain. She was found to have a large hemorrhagic pericardial effusion by cardiac MRI with echocardiographic signs of tamponade. She underwent the creation of a pericardial window and was treated with colchicine with improvement in symptoms.

Keywords: cardiac tamponade; covid; covid and heart; covid pericarditis; covid-19; hemorrhagic pericardial effusion; hemorrhagic pericarditis; mri cardiac; pericardial effusion; viral pericarditis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. CT chest with contrast at a local hospital prior to transfer demonstrating no effusion.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Cardiac MRI. Short axis steady-state free precession image demonstrating large pericardial effusion (short arrows) with blooming along the visceral and parietal pericardium (long arrows) due to hemosiderin deposition in the setting of a hemorrhagic effusion.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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