Pulmonary vein thrombosis is a rare but potentially catastrophic cause of recurrent stroke in patients with malignancy, requiring careful diagnostic evaluation with TEE and consideration of anticoagulation.
Death despite anticoagulation in malignancy-associated pulmonary vein thrombosis cautions against over-reliance on therapy alone; leaves open need for prospective studies.
BACKGROUND Pulmonary vein thrombosis (PVT) is a rare clinical entity. Etiologies include malignancy, hyper-viscosity syndromes, and other etiologies. Patients may present with dyspnea, cough, or hemoptysis. CASE REPORT We present a case of a 64-year-old man with a history of metastatic lung cancer diagnosed with PVT through transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and complicated by 2 cerebrovascular accidents. The patient had a complicated hospital course and died later due to his malignancy burden and overall condition, despite anticoagulation therapy. CONCLUSIONS Patients with PVT are often asymptomatic or may have a nonspecific clinical presentation. Anticoagulation should be considered in patients with PVT given the life-threatening complications such as peripheral embolization. More research is needed to address this potentially catastrophic finding.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Aldiwani et al. (2020) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: