Fatal cardiac tamponade and Kaposi's sarcoma

American Family Physician,  March, 1989  

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Fatal Cardiac Tamponade and Kaposi's Sarcoma Autopsy studies in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome indicate that Kaposi's sarcoma can involve the epicardial surface of the heart. This is generally an incidental postmortem finding, since patients usually do not have clinical cardiac dysfunction. Other cardiac abnormalities that can be fatal in patients with AIDS include pericardial effusion with tamponade, congestive cardiomyopathy and sustained ventricular dysrhythmias.

Most cases of pericardial effusion with tamponade in AIDS patients are considered to be infectious or idiopathic. Steigman and colleagues report a case of hemorrhagic pericardial effusion and fatal cardiac tamponade that was attributed to involvement of the epicardial surface with Kaposi's sarcoma. Cutaneous involvement was not present in this patient. (In approximately 5 percent of AIDS patients with visceral Kaposi's sarcoma, there is no evidence of cutaneous involvement.) Although pericardial effusion with cardiac tamponade is usually related to other causes, the clinician should be alert to the fact that acute hemorrhage into the pericardial space can occur with cardiac involvement with Kaposi's sarcoma. (American Heart Journal, October 1988, vol. 116, p. 1105.)

COPYRIGHT 1989 American Academy of Family Physicians
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning