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Case Reports
. 2020 Aug 10;91(3):ahead of print.
doi: 10.23750/abm.v91i3.10386.

Platypnea-orthodeoxia after fibrotic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 interstitial pneumonia. A case report

Affiliations
Case Reports

Platypnea-orthodeoxia after fibrotic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 interstitial pneumonia. A case report

Chiara Longo et al. Acta Biomed. .

Abstract

Platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome (POS) is a clinical entity characterized by positional dyspnoea (platypnea) and arterial desaturation (orthodeoxia) that occurs when sitting or standing up and usually resolves by lying down. POS may result from some cardiopulmonary disorders or from other miscellaneous aetiologies. We report a case of POS in a patient after fibrotic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 interstitial pneumonia associated with pulmonary embolism. The patient did not have any evidence of an intracardiac/intrapulmonary shunt.

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Conflict of interest statement

Each author declares that he or she has no commercial associations (e.g. consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangement etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Bilateral ground glass opacities with patchy distribution. Visual score of 35% (CT on March 28, 2020).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Bilateral segmental pulmonary embolism involving the branch for the posterior segment of the right upper lobe, anterior segmental branch of the left upper lobe and the branch for the dorsal segment of the left lower lobe. Worsening of ground glass opacities (visual score of 60%) (CT on April 5, 2020)
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Fibrotic evolution of interstitial pneumonia. Decrease of the ground glass opacities with peribronchial consolidating areas of organized appearance with contextual traction bronchiectasis. Visual score of 60%. (CT on April 20, 2020)
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
A ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scan in supine and sitting position. For more details, see the text.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Complete resolution of the pulmonary embolism. Mild reduction of the ground glass opacities with patchy distribution, persistence of the basal fibrotic pattern, with traction bronchiectasis. Presence of pneumomediastinum. Visual score of 50% (CT on June 5, 2020).

Comment in

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