Male, aged 74, with chronic respiratory disease and degenerative aortic stenosis, operated 45 days ago to replace the valve with a biological prosthetic valve. The patient came for a consultation due to class III dyspnoea and long-term oppressive retrosternal pain. Transthoracic echocardiography was carried out showing normal prosthetic functioning, good contractility in all segments, and collapsed right atrium due to severe pericardic haematoma (Panel A). The transoesophagic echocardiography

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... owed the haematoma from the aortic root, spreading upwards across the whole of the mediastinum (Panel B). Intimal flap, double lumen, or bleeding was not seen. Given these findings, it was decided to carry out a thoracic CAT, which gave pictures of a large-scale haematic collection displacing the mediastinal structures to the left. Its density is heterogeneous suggesting an acute extravasation originating at the level of the aortic root (Panel C). In light of these findings, it was decided to carry out emergency surgery. After sternotomy, intense haemorrhage resulted, which could not be controlled, eventually causing exitus due to haemorrhagic shock. The proximal ascending aorta was damaged and the tissues presented signs of infection. Samples were sent for histopathological examination. The Gomori-Grocott stain revealed the invasion of Aspergillus fumigatus in the external third of the aortic wall (Panel D). Mediastinitis, post-heart surgery, due to Aspergillus fumigatus, is extremely rare. Unfavourable prognosis presented due to the potential complications and given that the case developed sporadically and it was ensured that the hospital atmosphere was optimal; it was postulated that the aetiology of the picture was the passage of the micro-organism to the mediastinum by pleural incision in the patient with chronic respiratory disease and colonized pulmonary parenchyma. Soccer and CV-Event 153