Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2009;36:934. doi:10.1016/j.ejcts.2009.06.050
Copyright © 2009, European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier. All rights reserved.
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A huge aortic arch aneurysm mimicking massive pulmonary artery embolism
Enrico Ramoni*,
Uberto Da Col,
Isidoro Di Bella,
Temistocle Ragni
Department of Cardiac Surgery, Ospedale S. Maria della Misericordia, Perugia, Italy
Received 27 April 2009;
received in revised form 23 June 2009;
accepted 24 June 2009.
* Corresponding author. Address: S.C. di Cardiochirurgia, Ospedale S. Maria della Misericordia, S. Andrea delle Fratte, 06156 Perugia, Italy. Tel.: +39 0755782213; fax: +39 0755782214. (Email: enricoramoni{at}libero.it).
Key Words: Aortic aneurysm • Pulmonary heart disease • Emission-computed tomography
An 85-year-old man, who had previously undergone coronary bypass surgery, was subjected to a computed tomography (CT) scan because of an echocardiographic suspect of massive pulmonary embolism. A huge aortic arch aneurysm compressed the pulmonary arteries (Fig. 1
). Sudden cardio-respiratory failure required mechanical ventilation. At this stage, surgeons considered him inoperable for high risk. He died of multi-organ failure.
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Fig. 1. Multi-detector computed tomography scan of thorax, transversal (A) and sagittal (B) plane. The exam demonstrated an extrinsic severe compression of the main (black arrow) and left pulmonary artery (white arrow) by the aortic aneurysm (An). The lumen of pulmonary arteries was seriously compromised, as showed by the thin line of contrast medium, haemodynamically mimicking a massive pulmonary embolism.
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