title: Odd acoustic window and elongated ventricles: echocardiographic diagnosis of congenital absence of the pericardium.
abstract: A 14-year-old boy with a heart murmur was referred to the authors' department because structural heart disease could not be ruled out by standard echocardiographic views. The best apical four-chamber view was obtained with the patient turned to a right lateral decubitus position and the transducer shifted almost to the posterior axillary line. A biplane chest x-ray also showed a counterclockwise heart axis deviation. Magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the suspected congenital absence of the pericardium.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Heart Center, University of Leipzig, Strümpellstrasse 39, 04289, Leipzig, Germany. patrick.flosdorff@gmail.com
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Flosdorff
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Paech
authors.forename: Frank-Thomas
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Riede
authors.forename: Ingo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dähnert
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D004452:Echocardiography; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010496:Pericardium / Q000002:abnormalities*