Traumatic pulmonary artery--left atrial fistula: an unusual case of cyanosis in an adult.
Eighteen months after sustaining a stab wound to the left upper chest, a 59-year-old man presented with cyanosis and extertional dyspnea. Arterial desaturation due to a central 22 per cent right-to-left shunt was present. A selective pulmonary arteriogram demonstrated a fistula between the main pulmonary artery and the left atrium. At operation the fistula was closed. A laceration of the pulmonic valve and healed pericarditis were present. Marked symptomatic improvement followed the operation, but a murmur of pulmonic valvular regurgitation persisted. The fistula and laceration of the pulmonic valve were probably traumatic in origin.
D003490:Cyanosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005402:Fistula / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D011859:Radiography; D014951:Wounds, Stab / Q000150:complications