Acute suppurative amebic pericarditis

A 33 year old mulatto man presented with acute pericarditis and severe cardiac tamponade. Trophozoites of Entamoeba histolytica were found in the “anchovy sauce” pus obtained by pericardiocentesis. A large abscess in the left lobe of the liver with extension into the pericardial cavity was revealed by X-ray study after the injection of 75 percent Hypaque into the pericardial cavity. Clinical improvement occurred after treatment with chloroquine, metronidazole and emetine hydrochloride. Forty-five days after discharge the patient was readmitted with signs of constrictive pericarditis, and this lesion was confirmed by cardiac catheterization studies.