Taponamiento cardiaco secundario a metástasis de adenocarcinoma gástrico en el pericardio

We present the case of an adult woman with cardiac tamponade and death associated to pericardial metastasis from a diffuse gastric adenocarcinoma that lacked gastrointestinal clinical manifestations. These diagnoses were not established until post-mortem pathological examination. The clinical differential diagnoses with an autoimmune disease as well as pitfalls in the cytological diagnosis dealing with pericardial effusion material are discussed. Cardiac tamponade due to pericardial metastases from gastrointestinal cancers are exceptional events hardly ever diagnosed in clinical practice.