RT Book, Section A1 Shiber, Joseph R. A2 Farcy, David A. A2 Chiu, William C. A2 Flaxman, Alex A2 Marshall, John P. SR Print(0) ID 55812005 T1 Chapter 18. Pericardial Diseases T2 Critical Care Emergency Medicine YR 2012 FD 2012 PB The McGraw-Hill Companies PP New York, NY SN 978-0-07-162824-2 LK accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=55812005 RD 2024/03/28 AB In the 16th century, Vesalius first described the anatomy of the pericardium. In 1674, John Mayow gave the earliest account of constrictive pericarditis: “the heart was nearly covered by cartilage, adherent to its interior so that blood could scarcely enter.” Richard Lower in 1689 accurately described tamponade: “a profuse effusion oppresses and inundates the heart. The walls of the heart are so compressed by the fluid circling everywhere, so that the heart cannot dilate sufficiently to receive the blood, then the pulse becomes exceedingly small, thence succeed syncope and death itself.”1 Franz Schuh did the first successful pericadiocentesis in 1840; Churchill performed the first pericardiectomy in the United States in 1929. Claude Beck described his triad of findings in tamponade in 1935. In 1954, Edler demonstrated a pericardial effusion by ultrasound, and in 1971 Spodick described the EKG findings associated with pericarditis.1,2