Abstract
A 57-year-old woman first visited our hospital with a chief complaint of precordial discomfort. A chest x-ray film showed a marked enlargement of cardiac shadow, while an electrocardiogram showed low voltage. An echocardiographic study showed pericardial effusiton. The patient was not seen until Feb. 16, 1981, when she was admitted to the hospital because of orthopnea and anasarca and died 3 hours later.
At autopsy, a massive bloody pericardial effusion, 1400 ml, was demonstrated. A tumor measuring 15 × 10 × 2.5 cm was seen in the right anterior mediastinum. The apparentyly encapsulated tumor was free of the lung, but was adherent to the anterior pericardium. There were several focal areas of hemorrhage within the tumor. Histological study revealed mixed type thymoma. Massive bleeding from the tumor into the pericardial cavity was postulated to the cause of cardiac tamponade death in this case.
