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Congenital Anomalous Azygos Vein Drainage Causing Pulmonary Embolus in a 91-Year-Old Patient
BACKGROUND: Retroaortic course and azygos continuation of aberrant left brachiocephalic vein is a rare venous anomaly, which is usually associated with congenital heart disease and pulmonary artery anomalies. Venous stasis is a cause of pulmonary arterial thromboembolism, which can result from venou...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SMC Media Srl
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8667999/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34912739 http://dx.doi.org/10.12890/2021_002978 |
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author | Low, Kai En Premathilake, Panduke Pullaperuma, Lasanthi Angel, Tammy |
author_facet | Low, Kai En Premathilake, Panduke Pullaperuma, Lasanthi Angel, Tammy |
author_sort | Low, Kai En |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Retroaortic course and azygos continuation of aberrant left brachiocephalic vein is a rare venous anomaly, which is usually associated with congenital heart disease and pulmonary artery anomalies. Venous stasis is a cause of pulmonary arterial thromboembolism, which can result from venous anomalies. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe the case of a 91-year-old female admitted to our hospital with shortness of breath diagnosed with pulmonary embolism and infarctions by a CT pulmonary angiogram. CT also showed aberrant left brachiocephalic vein with vascular webs at its retroaortic course and azygos continuation, suggesting chronic venous thrombosis, which was considered to be the suspected source of emboli. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first report presenting this vascular anomaly manifesting with chronic venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Although rare, awareness and identification of this entity is important, especially in the absence of obvious embolic sources or in patients with recurrent embolus/consolidation. LEARNING POINTS: Awareness of congenital anomalous drainage anatomy is important even if there has been a relatively benign clinical course. Alterations in morphology due to age and degenerative change may result in altered flow predisposing to chronic embolic phenomena. Recurrent consolidation may not necessarily be due to infection in the elderly, a recurrent embolic phenomenon may also be a cause, in this case without a common cause such as deep vein thrombosis. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8667999 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | SMC Media Srl |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86679992021-12-14 Congenital Anomalous Azygos Vein Drainage Causing Pulmonary Embolus in a 91-Year-Old Patient Low, Kai En Premathilake, Panduke Pullaperuma, Lasanthi Angel, Tammy Eur J Case Rep Intern Med Articles BACKGROUND: Retroaortic course and azygos continuation of aberrant left brachiocephalic vein is a rare venous anomaly, which is usually associated with congenital heart disease and pulmonary artery anomalies. Venous stasis is a cause of pulmonary arterial thromboembolism, which can result from venous anomalies. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe the case of a 91-year-old female admitted to our hospital with shortness of breath diagnosed with pulmonary embolism and infarctions by a CT pulmonary angiogram. CT also showed aberrant left brachiocephalic vein with vascular webs at its retroaortic course and azygos continuation, suggesting chronic venous thrombosis, which was considered to be the suspected source of emboli. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first report presenting this vascular anomaly manifesting with chronic venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Although rare, awareness and identification of this entity is important, especially in the absence of obvious embolic sources or in patients with recurrent embolus/consolidation. LEARNING POINTS: Awareness of congenital anomalous drainage anatomy is important even if there has been a relatively benign clinical course. Alterations in morphology due to age and degenerative change may result in altered flow predisposing to chronic embolic phenomena. Recurrent consolidation may not necessarily be due to infection in the elderly, a recurrent embolic phenomenon may also be a cause, in this case without a common cause such as deep vein thrombosis. SMC Media Srl 2021-11-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8667999/ /pubmed/34912739 http://dx.doi.org/10.12890/2021_002978 Text en © EFIM 2021 This article is licensed under a Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 License |
spellingShingle | Articles Low, Kai En Premathilake, Panduke Pullaperuma, Lasanthi Angel, Tammy Congenital Anomalous Azygos Vein Drainage Causing Pulmonary Embolus in a 91-Year-Old Patient |
title | Congenital Anomalous Azygos Vein Drainage Causing Pulmonary Embolus in a 91-Year-Old Patient |
title_full | Congenital Anomalous Azygos Vein Drainage Causing Pulmonary Embolus in a 91-Year-Old Patient |
title_fullStr | Congenital Anomalous Azygos Vein Drainage Causing Pulmonary Embolus in a 91-Year-Old Patient |
title_full_unstemmed | Congenital Anomalous Azygos Vein Drainage Causing Pulmonary Embolus in a 91-Year-Old Patient |
title_short | Congenital Anomalous Azygos Vein Drainage Causing Pulmonary Embolus in a 91-Year-Old Patient |
title_sort | congenital anomalous azygos vein drainage causing pulmonary embolus in a 91-year-old patient |
topic | Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8667999/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34912739 http://dx.doi.org/10.12890/2021_002978 |
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