Pericardial effusion is a symptom of fluid accumulation in the pericardial cavity due to infectious (e.g., tuberculous, septic) and non-infectious (e.g., rheumatic heart disease, tumors) factors, and it is often differentiated from septic pericarditis, tuberculous pericarditis, viral pericarditis, and rheumatic pericarditis.
1. Septic pericarditis: often masked by the primary disease, usually sepsis or other septic infections occur jugular venous fury, dyspnea, blood pressure drop, tachycardia, etc., should be considered the possibility of septic pericarditis.
2. Tuberculous pericarditis: it usually comes from the direct spread of mediastinal lymph node tuberculosis and pulmonary pleural tuberculosis, so there is often the presence of extrapericardial tuberculosis, and its exudate is mostly large in volume and bloody, and the culture of exudate can find Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
3. Viral pericarditis: there is often a history of viral infection, which can occur at the same time with viral myocarditis and/or endocarditis, and the amount of pericardial effusion is not too much, and it can be transient, but it can be reoccurring.
4. Rheumatic pericarditis: it occurs mostly in young people, often combined with rheumatic myocarditis and endocarditis, and its exudate is usually plasma, rarely bloody, and the amount of fluid is usually small or moderate.
In addition, pericardial effusion can also be differentiated from uremic pericarditis, systemic lupus erythematosus pericarditis, radiation pericarditis, etc. Once pericardial effusion is detected, it should be actively treated under the guidance of physicians.