Pulmonary metastases: a rare cause for pulmonary artery invasion and in situ pulmonary artery thrombosis-demonstration with multidetector computed tomography

摘要

Pulmonary artery (PA) thromboembolism is a well-known complication of peripheral venous thrombosis. Cancer patients are known to have an increased tendency to pulmonary thromboembolism. Pulmonary artery tumour emboli may be found at autopsy in up to 30% of patients of certain malignancies. Pulmonary arteries may also be involved by contiguous extension of tumour thrombus from a known malignancy at a distant site. Direct neoplastic invasion of PAs by bronchial tumours has been described in literature. We describe a case of pulmonary metastases invading the PA causing in situ (PA) thrombosis demonstrated at multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in a known patient of metastatic malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour (MPNST). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case in the English literature documenting imaging demonstration of pulmonary metastases invading PA with tumour thrombosis.