Pericardial thickening

Last revised by Daniel J Bell on 21 Jun 2019

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Weerakkody Y, Bell D, Pericardial thickening. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 16 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-68947

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-68947

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/68947

rID:

68947

Article created:

20 Jun 2019, Yuranga Weerakkody ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Yuranga Weerakkody had no recorded disclosures.

View Yuranga Weerakkody's current disclosures

Last revised:

21 Jun 2019, Daniel J Bell ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Daniel J Bell had no recorded disclosures.

View Daniel J Bell's current disclosures

Revisions:

2 times, by 2 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Cardiac

Synonyms:

Thickened pericardium
Thickening of pericardium

Pericardial thickening refers to an abnormally thickened state of the pericardium and may occur in inflammatory (i.e. pericarditis) as well as non-inflammatory situations.

Many consider a maximum thickness ~2 mm (as measured on CT/MRI) as the upper limit of normal, with a thickness greater than 4 mm as abnormal pericardial thickening³.

The pericardial thickness varies over different parts of the heart and is reported to be thinnest over the left ventricle.

The "visualized thickness" of pericardium may also depend on image resolution. Bull et al, reported that when using 1 mm high-resolution CT, the upper limit of the thinnest part of the pericardium was 0.7 mm and when using 10 mm CT slices was 1.2 mm.

Pericardial thickening can occur in various forms (i.e.uniform/nodular) and may or may not be accompanied by a pericardial effusion.