Abstract
The patient was a 65-year-old woman undergone a radical mastectomy for right breast cancer at the age of 39 and a radical mastectomy for left breast cancer at the age of 45. In March 2008, she noticed her leg edema progressing during she had been treated for herpes zoster at a hospital, and was referred to the department of internal medicine in our hospital. Echocardiography disclosed pericardial effusion. She was diagnosed with cardiac tamponade and congestive heart failure at the department of cardiology and was emergently admitted. After admission, a decrease in pulse pressure was noted and surgical pericardial drainage was performed. Cytodiagnosis of the drained discharge gave a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma. Metastasis of breast cancer to the pericardium was diagnosed from the histological findings. Her symptoms remarkably improved and the drainage tube was removed one week after the placement. Thereafter she was transferred to the department of breast surgery and endocrine therapy with letrozole was started because the hormone receptor of the resected tumor was positive. She has been followed in our clinic without having distant metastases as well as further episode of pericardial effusion as of about three years after the pericardial drainage.
