Primary pericardial mesothelioma: report of two cases and review of the literature

Our plain-English summary of Primary pericardial mesothelioma: report of two cases and review of the literature, by A.L. Sytman, R.N. MacAlpin (American Heart Journal, 1971).

The study

• Authors: A.L. Sytman, R.N. MacAlpin
• Journal: American Heart Journal
• Published: 1971;81(6):760-9
• Cited by: 65 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Two patients with primary pericardial mesothelioma are presented in detail, and the world literature is reviewed. Both patients presented with chest pain and the symptoms and signs of congestive heart failure with a very high venous pressure. Only one had a pulsus paradoxus. Both had nonspecific ECG changes and cardiomegaly. Multiple pericardiocenteses were dry in one case. Cardiac catheterization demonstrated findings characteristic of restrictive cardiac disease. Both cardiac blood-pool scans and angiocardiography demonstrated “pericardial thickening.” Definitive, antemortem diagnosis required open pericardial exploration and biopsy. No specific therapy exists for this condition.

PubMed has no abstract for this study. This is the authors' abstract, copied from the article.

In plain English

This article combined two case reports with a review of the published literature on primary pericardial mesothelioma, a tumor of the lining around the heart. The authors described two men seen at UCLA Hospital whose diagnosis was made before death. One was a 17-year-old whose illness began in 1968, and the other a 43-year-old whose illness began in 1965. Both had chest pain and signs of heart failure, and heart catheterization showed findings characteristic of restrictive heart disease. In both, exploratory surgery and biopsy were needed for a definite diagnosis. The first patient's tumor was diagnosed as pericardial mesothelioma, and he died in June 1970. The second patient's tumor was fibrous mesothelioma of the pericardium. Radiation therapy was followed by a marked reduction in heart size, and he died in February 1966. The article did not report asbestos exposure for either patient. The authors stated that there is no association of pericardial mesothelioma with asbestosis, unlike pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma. They concluded that no specific therapy exists for this condition.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Report of two cases plus a review of the world literature
• Who was studied: Two patients with primary pericardial mesothelioma diagnosed before death at UCLA Hospital, Los Angeles: a 17-year-old Caucasian man whose illness began in August 1968 and a 43-year-old Caucasian man whose illness began in July 1965
• Exposure: No asbestos or occupational exposure was reported for either patient. The only mention of asbestos is the authors' general statement, with a citation to earlier work, that pericardial mesothelioma is not associated with asbestosis, in contrast to pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma.
• Main results:
  • In both patients, cardiac catheterization showed findings characteristic of restrictive cardiac disease
  • In both cases, exploratory surgery and biopsy were required for a definitive diagnosis
  • Case 1 (17-year-old man): the pathologic diagnosis was pericardial mesothelioma, and he died with anasarca and cachexia in June 1970
  • Case 2 (43-year-old man): the pathologic diagnosis was fibrous mesothelioma of the pericardium. He received radiation therapy to the heart (total tumor dose 5,128 rads), which was followed by a marked reduction in heart size.
  • Case 2 died on February 2, 1966. At autopsy the tumor had spread within the chest, but there were no metastases outside the chest.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that diagnosis before death required open exploration and biopsy, and that no specific therapy exists for primary pericardial mesothelioma

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pericardial Mesothelioma, Pericardial, Biopsy.

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