How is cardiac tamponade diagnosed?

How is cardiac tamponade diagnosed?

Several different tests and methods can help diagnose cardiac tamponade. However, certain tests are more likely to be used when it happens quickly because they can deliver a fast diagnosis.

Healthcare providers are most likely to diagnose cardiac tamponade using the following:

• Physical exam: This will include taking your pulse, blood pressure and checking your breathing. Your healthcare provider will also listen to your heart and breathing sounds. A provider taking blood pressure may also take longer than usual because they are looking for a symptom called pulsus paradoxus, where your blood pressure drops unusually each time you take a breath.
• Echocardiogram: This test uses ultrasound waves to see inside your chest and heart. In an emergency, an echocardiogram can be done using a portable machine brought to your hospital bed.
• Chest X-ray: An X-ray can show fluid buildup around your heart.
• Computed tomography (CT) scan: An advanced type of scan that uses X-ray and computer technology to examine heart and circulatory problems.
• Electrocardiogram: This test uses sensors that attach to the skin of your chest and detect the electrical activity of your heart.
• Heart catheterization: This test lets providers see inside your heart and blood vessels using a device that’s inserted into one of your arteries and then threaded toward and into your heart.

A hallmark sign of cardiac tamponade is a trio of symptoms known as Beck’s triad:

• Low blood pressure (hypotension).
• Bulging neck veins.
• Heartbeat sounds that are distant or muffled when listening through a stethoscope.

However, Beck’s triad doesn’t always happen when a person has cardiac tamponade, so a lack of these isn’t a guarantee it isn’t happening.