PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Vinit Sawhney
AU  - Oksana Maksunova
AU  - Syed Ahsan
AU  - Muhiddin Ozkor
AU  - Mark Westwood
TI  - Lesson of the month 1: Pericardial mass and cardiac tamponade associated with <em>Mycoplasma pneumoniae</em>
AID  - 10.7861/clinmedicine.14-5-549
DP  - 2014 Oct 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 549--551
VI  - 14
IP  - 5
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/14/5/549.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/14/5/549.full
SO  - Clin Med2014 Oct 01; 14
AB  - Mycoplasma pneumoniae primarily causes respiratory tract infections. Extrapulmonary manifestations are seen in 20–25% of cases. Cardiac involvement is rarely reported. We present a unique case of a pericardial mass and cardiac tamponade associated with a Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia. This required emergency pericardial fenestration. The patient improved dramatically postoperatively on antibiotics and there was no recurrence of the pericardial effusion on follow up. This case highlights the often forgotten invasive properties of a common respiratory tract pathogen and emphasises the need to consider this easily treatable entity in the differential diagnosis of idiopathic pericardial effusions.