Premium
The Air Gap Sign
Author(s) -
Kerut Edmund Kenneth,
Hannawalt Curtis,
Everson Charles T.,
Nanda Navin C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1111/echo.12513
Subject(s) - sign (mathematics) , content (measure theory) , computer science , information gap , information retrieval , mathematics , computer security , bridging (networking) , mathematical analysis
An elderly female aspirated a donut and subsequently had loss of consciousness and cardiopulmonary arrest. Family members performed chest compressions until emergency medical services arrived and resuscitated the patient with an adequate heart rate and blood pressure. On hospital admission, the patient was nonresponsive on a mechanical ventilator. Cardiac auscultation revealed distant heart tones, but no rub or mediastinal crunch was heard. The admission chest x-ray revealed a normal cardiac silhouette, but the presence of a pneumopericardium (Fig. 1). Two-dimensional echocardiography was best imaged from the subcostal window. Loss of ultrasound signal was