Cardiac arrest with impending circulatory collapse
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
- Correspondence to Dr Akash P Kansagra, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Avenue, M-391, San Francisco, CA 94143-0628, USA; akash.kansagra{at}ucsf.edu
- Received 5 November 2012
- Revised 5 November 2012
- Accepted 7 November 2012
- Published Online First 6 December 2012
An old patient was brought to the emergency department with cardiac arrest following blunt traumatic injury. After successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the patient underwent CT scan which revealed dependent layering of contrast and severe venous reflux (figure 1) as well as lack of forward flow into the left heart (figure 2), indicating impending circulatory collapse. Moments later, the patient became pulseless and severely …
