Small left atrium: an adjunctive sign of hemodynamically compromised massive pulmonary embolism.
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common disease with a high mortality rate due to right ventricular dysfunction and underfilling of the left ventricle. We present a case of a 33-year-old man with hemodynamically compromised massive PE. His left atrium was collapsed with marked dilatation of the right atrium and ventricle on multi-detector-row CT scans. The patient was treated with an intracatheter injection of a mutant tissue-type plasminogen activator and subsequently showed clinical and radiological improvements. The small left atrial size in combination with a right ventricular pressure overload was considered to be an adjunctive sign of hemodynamically compromised massive PE.
Hama
Yukihiro
Y
Radiation Biology Branch, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Building 10, Room B3B69, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA. yjhama2005@yahoo.co.jp
Yakushiji
Tadayuki
T
Iwasaki
Yoshie
Y
Kaji
Tatsumi
T
Isomura
Naoei
N
Kusano
Shoichi
S
D000328:Adult; D004108:Dilatation, Pathologic; D004452:Echocardiography; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed