Blood or Fat? Differentiating Hemopericardium versus Epicardial Fat Using Focused Cardiac Ultrasound.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Bronshteyn, Yuriy S.; Hashmi, Nazish; Privratsky, Jamie R.; Barbeito, Atilio
- Source
- Diagnostics (2075-4418). Apr2024, Vol. 14 Issue 8, p818. 6p.
- Subject
- *EPICARDIAL adipose tissue
*CARDIAC tamponade
*ULTRASONIC imaging
*PERICARDIAL effusion
*FAT
- Language
- ISSN
- 2075-4418
Basic point-of-care ultrasound of the heart—also known as Focused Cardiac Ultrasound (FoCUS)—has emerged as a powerful bedside tool to narrow the differential diagnosis of causes of hypotension. The list of causes of hypotension that a FoCUS provider is expected to be able to recognize includes a compressive pericardial effusion due to hemopericardium (blood in the pericardial sac). But hemopericardium can be difficult to distinguish from a more common condition that is not immediately life-threatening: epicardial fat. This paper reviews illustrative images of both epicardial fat and hemopericardium to provide practice guidance to the FoCUS user on how to differentiate these two phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]