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Case Reports
. 2011;38(1):71-3.

High-grade, nonmyogenic pulmonary artery sarcoma: rare findings on coronary angiography

Vimal Ramjee  1 , Melinda M Lewis, Stephen D Clements
Affiliations
Case Reports

High-grade, nonmyogenic pulmonary artery sarcoma: rare findings on coronary angiography

Vimal Ramjee et al. Tex Heart Inst J. 2011.

Abstract

Pulmonary artery sarcomas are exceptionally rare, and they are often misdiagnosed as chronic pulmonary thromboemboli. Early and accurate diagnosis is crucial to the prognosis of patients who have pulmonary artery sarcomas.Herein, we describe the case of a 74-year-old man who presented with dyspnea and was initially thought to have a pulmonary embolus. Anticoagulation with unfractionated heparin was ineffective. Rare angiographic findings during routine cardiac catheterization led to the diagnosis of a high-grade, nonmyogenic, primary pulmonary artery sarcoma. This case illustrates the usefulness of angiographic findings as an adjunct to conventional diagnostic methods in correctly identifying this rare, aggressive malignancy.

Keywords: Diagnosis, differential; diagnostic imaging; pulmonary artery/patholo-gy/radiography; sarcoma/diagnosis/pathology/radiology; vascular neoplasms/diagnosis/pathology.

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Figures

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Fig. 1 Contrast-enhanced computed tomogram of the chest shows pulmonary nodules and a large, enhanced lesion in the left pulmonary artery.
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Fig. 2 Angiographic image during balloon-inflated Swan-Ganz catheterization shows a nearly complete filling defect of the left main pulmonary artery proximal to its branches. Real-time motion image is available at www.texasheart.org/journal.
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Fig. 3 Photomicrograph of left intrapulmonary artery biopsy specimen shows features of a high-grade, nonmyogenic sarcoma (H & E, orig. ×10).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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