The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death edited by Michael Martin and Keith Augustine, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. ISBN 978-0-8108-8677-3. A Traveler's Guide to the Afterlife: Traditions and Beliefs on Death, Dying, and What Lies Beyond by Mark Mirabello, Ph.D. Inner Traditions.
In 1956, Proudfit and Effler 1 reported a simple method of performing pericardial biopsy which provides adequate amounts of tissue for bacteriologic and histologic study. Safe and effective pericardial drainage can be accomplished by the same procedure.
Excess fluid can prevent normal filling of the heart, which can reduce the heart's ability to pump blood (cardiac tamponade). Pericardial drainage may be done to find the cause of a pericardial effusion. During this test, a needle is inserted into the chest and into the pericardium to remove a sample of the fluid.