Highlights the importance of maintaining a high index of suspicion for pulmonary embolism in patients presenting with nonspecific right-sided heart failure symptoms to enable prompt anticoagulation.
Warrants vigilance for pulmonary embolism in atypical right heart failure; leaves open need for controlled confirmation.
Pulmonary thromboembolism occurring either abruptly or insidious poses a greater challenge in diagnosis. A high index of suspicion is required to proceed with proper investigations in patients with nonspecific cardiac or respiratory presentation to make the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE). Early diagnosis of PE with prompt initiating of anticoagulation therapy has been proven to have a positive impact in mortality reduction associated with recurrent episodes of this condition. We present a case of a 76-year-old man, known to have cardiac failure on regular treatment who presented with predominant features of right-sided heart failure accompanied with dizziness. He was diagnosed to have pulmonary artery thrombosis by computerized tomography. Anticoagulation therapy was initiated with marked clinical improvement.
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Rwegerera et al. (2014) studied this question.
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