PERICARDITIS CALCULOSA: REPORT OF A NEW CASE DISCOVERED ROENTGENOLOGICALLY

Rarely does the roentgen-ray examiner stumble onto anything more interesting and startling than the revelation of a calcareous deposit in the pericardium. This relatively rare deposit of lime salts, occurring in a regular or irregular manner on the surface of the heart, sometimes loosely spoken of as "ossification" and "bone" in the pericardium, is more properly designated as pericarditic calcification or pericarditis calculosa. The calcium deposit, composed of the phosphate combined with small amounts of the carbonate and a trace of sodium, usually is confined to the pericardium; but it may extend into the substance of the heart.There have been published several excellent summaries of our knowledge of the pathology and symptomatology of this rare condition, notably those by Diemer,1 Jones,2 Mitchell,3 Klason4 and Mueller.5 The total number of cases found reported in the literature prior to 1922 is ninety. To these I have