Chest, Vol 85, 701-703, Copyright © 1984 by American College of Chest Physicians

ARTICLES

Occult purulent pericarditis detected by indium-111 leukocyte imaging

ML Greenberg, HI Niebulski, BF Uretsky, R Salerni, HA Klein, WJ Forstate and TE Starzl

Leukocyte imaging with indium-111 is a relatively new technique which, to this point in time, has been discussed almost exclusively in the radiologic literature. Although this procedure has been used mainly to detect intra-abdominal infection, the thorax is routinely imaged along with the abdomen, and therefore detection of cardiac disease may be feasible. This case report is of a young woman after liver transplantation who developed occult purulent pericarditis initially detected by a leukocyte scan with indium-111. This case demonstrates that striking pericardial uptake on a whole-body indium-111 leukocyte scan can occur with purulent pericarditis, and it reemphasizes how insidiously purulent pericarditis may present in an immunosuppressed patient.