Pneumopericardium due to bronchopericardial fistula in a patient with lung cancer

Description 

Documented cases of pneumopericardium in patients with lung cancer are extremely rare.

We report the case of a 66-year-old man with a 45 pack-year smoking history and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 4. He presented with dyspnoea and chest pain in the last 2 hours. There were no signs of cardiac tamponade present.

CT angiography of the chest revealed a 78 mm right pulmonary mass containing small areas with gas density and a pneumopericardium of 28 mm in maximum thickness (figure 1). Transthoracic echocardiography showed the air gap sign, identified as the loss of signal during the systolic phase presented in patients with pneumopericardium. Bronchofibroscopy showed extensive infiltration and destruction of the carina bronchial wall and of the main bronchi by malignancy and endobronchial disease (figure 2). Endobronchial biopsies revealed an invasive squamous cell carcinoma.

Figure 1

CT angiography of the chest...

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