Acute bronchogenic cyst formation: Diagnosis by two-dimensional echocardiography

✍ Scribed by Allan L. Anderson; F. Andrew Gaffney; Thomas S. Davidson; Aaron Estrera

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 372 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-2751
• DOI: 10.1002/jcu.1870100908

✦ Synopsis

Evaluation of the patient with a mediastinal mass remains a difficult challenge for the clinician. This is a result of complex mediastinal anatomy and the large variety of pathologic processes involving mediastinal structures. 1-3 A variety of diagnostic techniques, including echocardiography, have been recommended for the evaluation of patients with a mediastinal massa4-'j This report emphasizes the two-dimensional echocardiographic findings and differential diagnosis of a patient with a large mediastinal mass, found at surgery to be a bronchogenic cyst.

CASE REPORT

An 18-yr-old girl was admitted to Parkland Memorial Hospital in January 1981 with chest pain. In October 1980 she had been evaluated following an automobile accident; physical examination and a chest x-ray (Fig 1A) were normal. Four days prior to the second admission, the patient was awakened with sharp substernal chest pain. The discomfort was pleuritic and was slightly diminished by sitting; it persisted throughout the four days before admission. She experienced concomitant dysphagia and odynophagia for solid foods. There was a history of childhood asthma and sporadic intravenous amphetamine abuse.

The physical examination on admission was normal, except for a grade 216 systolic ejection murmur that diminished with Valsalva maneuver From the Divisions of Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery,