Conclusions
In our experience, finding a pericardial effusion when doing a MUGA study to evaluate left ventricular function before adriamycin therapy is rare. Although echocardiography is the preferred imaging technique to diagnose pericardial effusion, it is rarely done for evaluation of left ventricular function before adriamycin therapy. Such assessment has long been the province of the MUGA scan in no small measure because of the reproducibility of the left ventricular ejection fraction. This case should remind us to look for pericardial effusion as part of assessment of left ventricular function and suggests that tomographic images provide an improved method for evaluating same.