A Case of Congenital Pericardial Defect

ABSTRACT

Congenital absence of the pericardium is thought to be uncommon. There are two types, complete and partial, of different clinical features. Complete type is innocuous but partial type is potentially fatal due to herniation. This case was referred for an unusual appearance of chest radiograph taken after admissio n for bronchopneumoia without any cardiac symptoms. Plain chest radiograph showed an unusual bulging on the left inferior cardiac boarder. The diagnosis was made on the characteristic findings as a partial defect of right side pencardium in the cardiac gated cinemagnetic resonance imaging study. We presented a case of pericardial defect with brief review of the related literatures.