What is the normal Pericardial thickness ?

An unusal conversation with a flamboyant student fellow, May I know , What is the normal Pericardial thickness, ? Which pericardium you mean sir ? ,Parietal or visceral? Would like to know both . It is variable sheet of tissue .You want the thinnest part or thickest part ? Don’t beat around the bush .Tell some answer. You want, autopsy thickness, or real life thickness as surgeon sees it ? I want it in practical Imaging modality Do you want Echo, CT or MRI thickness ? I should say , its too much for a first-year fellow in reverse questioning! Ok relax sir, shall I tell the systolic or diastolic thickness? So, you decided to spoil my day. Ok, one final clarification sir,, you want thickenss over anterior RV aspect or over posterior atria ? You are getting on my nerves. Thankyou, will you please leave the class . Yes, pericardial anatomy ,can indeed make us crazy. Let us try to get some answer . Whenever some one is asking about pericardial thickness, it generally mean the parietal,thicker fibrous outer layer. It’s about 1 to 4 mm*, never more than 3 -4 mm .As we can see, it is a highly variable sheet of folded tissue with different adherent surfaces. The visceral pericardium is very much less than 1 mm, in fact,it need to be measured in microns. It is called the epicardium and adheres seamlessly to the myocardium with intervening fat. (Sub epicardial fat) Ref: Normal pericardium measures 0.4–1.0 mm thick i...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs