Cardiac tamponade

Cardiac tamponade in a 10-year-old Boxer. The pericardium appears filled with blood-stained fluid (hydrohemopericardium). The presence of this liquid, which distends the pericardium to an extreme level, prevents the normal dilation of the cardiac cavities during diastole, resulting, in extremis, in cardiovascular shock and death. Underlying the hydrohemopericardium, a mass was found at the base of the heart, corresponding to a chemodectoma. The fine black stippling visible in both lungs corresponds to anthracosis.