Is pericardial effusion serious? What are the complications?

Pericardial effusion is a common disease in women, especially during menopause. The early symptoms of pericardial effusion include brief chest tightness and chest pain. Most people do not pay too much attention to it, which may cause more serious complications in the long run.

Pericardial effusion often occurs as a complication of other diseases, such as tumors, heart failure, rheumatism, etc. In addition to the compression symptoms on the lungs, the complications caused by this disease also include the following complications:

1. Cerebral hemorrhage

There are few reports of pericardial effusion complicated by cerebral hemorrhage. Its occurrence may be related to the obstruction of blood flow back to the heart and the increase of intracranial blood vessel pressure leading to vascular rupture after a large amount of pericardial effusion. Therefore, during treatment, strict attention should be paid to other associated symptoms. If some symptoms that are difficult to explain by this disease appear, other diseases should be actively sought to avoid missed diagnosis and failure to receive timely treatment.

2. Infective endocarditis

The premise for the occurrence of this disease is that the pericardial effusion contains purulent cells. When infectious endocarditis occurs, due to the involvement of the valves, the exuded fibrin, white blood cells and bacteria can form vegetation and attach to the affected valves. During the echocardiographic examination, the reflected echo formed by this vegetation is the characteristic manifestation of the echocardiogram. On two-dimensional ultrasound, the size, shape, attachment position and activity of the vegetation can also be clearly seen. Therefore, the detection of the vegetation is of great help in the ultrasonic diagnosis of infectious endocarditis.