An age-associated etiological survey of pericardial effusion / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To survey and analyze the etiology of pericardial effusion in different age patients. Methods The data of 450 patients who were diagnosed as pericardial effusion were studied retrospectively. The pathogenesis of pericardial effusion were analyzed and compared among the five age groups juvenile group (0-19 years),young group (20-39 years),middle age group (40-59 years), aged group (60-79 years) and existed advanced age group (≥80 years). Results The different pathogenesis of pericardial effusion existed in different age groups. The first three causes are tumor, tuberculous, heart failure in all patients. As a pathogeny, cardiopulmonary insufficiency induced pericardial effusions constitute the majority (about 50%) in the advanced age group. Tumor, heart failure are the main causes in aged group. In middle age group, tumor and tuberculous are the most frequent pathogenesis, while the tuberculous is the principal causes in juvenile and young groups. Conclusions The rate of tumor, heart failure, lung infection raised along with the age increasing in the patients with pericardial effusion, meanwhile the cases of tuberculoses declined. Attention should be given to this tendency on the diagnosis and treatment of the patients with pericardial effusions.