Yonsei Med J.  2004 Jun;45(3):547-551. 10.3349/ymj.2004.45.3.547.

A Case of Pulmonary Artery Intimal Sarcoma Diagnosed with Multislice CT Scan with 3D Reconstruction

• Choi EY
• Yoon YW
• Kwon HM
• Kim D
• Park BE
• Hong YS
• Koo JS
• Kim TH
• Kim HS

• KMID: 1734141
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.2004.45.3.547

Abstract

Pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma is a rare highly lethal disease, with additional retrograde extension to pulmonic valve and right ventricle being an extremely rare condition. It is frequently mistaken for pulmonary thromboembolism. We report a case of 64-year-old woman with progressive dyspnea initially suspected and treated for pulmonary thromboembolism. Her helical chest CT scan with 3 dimensional (3D) reconstruction combined with echocardiography revealed a compacting main pulmonary artery mass extending to the right ventricular outflow tract and the right pulmonary artery. After excision of the mass, the patient's condition improved dramatically, and the pathologic findings revealed pulmonary intimal sarcoma. This report emphasizes that helical chest CT with 3D reconstruction can be an important tool to differentiate the characteristics of pulmonary artery lesions, such as intimal sarcoma and thromboembolism.

Keyword

Pulmonary artery intimal sarcoma; helical CT with 3D reconstruction; echocardiography

MeSH Terms

Diagnosis, Differential
Echocardiography
Female
Human
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Middle Aged
Pulmonary Artery/pathology/*radiography
Sarcoma/pathology/*radiography/ultrasonography
Tomography, X-Ray Computed/*methods
Tunica Intima/pathology/radiography
Vascular Neoplasms/pathology/*radiography/ultrasonography