Echocardiographic diagnosis and follow-up of left ventricular pseudoaneurysm complicating bacterial pericarditis.

Two-dimensional echocardiography demonstrated a pseudoaneurysm of the lateral wall of the left ventricle in a 13-year-old girl with bacterial pericarditis. The echocardiographic findings included a 5-mm discontinuity in the lateral wall of the left ventricle, an associated anechoic collection (5.6 x 5.1 cm), and a narrow communication between the left ventricle and the anechoic collection. Color Doppler imaging demonstrated flow through the communication between the left ventricle and the aneurysmal cavity. The patient and her family refused surgery. A follow-up echocardiographic examination more than 6 years later demonstrated disappearance of the discontinuity of the left ventricular lateral wall, no flow between the left ventricle and the pseudoaneurysm, and thrombus formation within the pseudoaneurysm. Copyright 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.