Pulmonary vein thrombosis associated with metastatic ovarian cancer

Abstract

Pulmonary vein thrombosis (PVT) is a rare, life-threatening, and difficult-to-diagnose condition. Most of the literature on PVT consists of case reports, and its actual incidence is unknown. It occurs especially as a complication of malignancy or pulmonary surgery. We present a case of PVT detected incidentally in a 25-year-old female who presented with dyspnea and left flank pain and underwent computed tomography pulmonary angiography with a preliminary diagnosis of pulmonary artery embolism. Further investigation revealed that the PVT was associated with the lung metastasis of ovarian cancer. The patient died one month after diagnosis due to malignancyrelated complications. Because of its nonspecific symptoms and findings, PVT may easily be missed or misdiagnosed. An emergency physician should consider not only pulmonary artery embolism but also PVT when considering a thromboembolic event in the differential diagnosis regardless of etiology and use appropriate imaging modalities to confirm this diagnosis.