Cardiac tamponade and severe pericardial effusion in systemic sclerosis: report of nine patients and review of the literature.

Aim: To describe the clinical characteristics, treatment and outcome of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) developing severe pericardial effusion or cardiac tamponade.

Methods: SSc patients with severe pericardial effusion or cardiac tamponade from three Spanish hospitals were collected. In addition, a computer-assisted (PubMed, MEDLINE) search of the literature to identify all cases of cardiac tamponade or severe pericardial effusion associated with SSc reported in English, French and Spanish from 1987 through September 2015 was performed.