Knot in a pulmonary thromboembolus.
OBJECTIVE
To describe an unusual morphological appearance of a pulmonary thromboembolus.


METHODS
An adult male was admitted following a collapse at home and certified dead soon after. There was no past history of thromboembolic predisposition, risk or phenomena apart from a BMI of 34, cigarette smoking and recent discharge from hospital following a chest infection. Postmortem findings were those of death due a pulmonary thromboembolus complicating deep (calf) vein thrombosis. Unusually and unexpectedly, a knot was found in the leading (head) portion of this thromboembolus.


CONCLUSIONS
We describe the first reported case of a knot in a thromboembolus and speculate that this could only have occurred in the larger veins or during its course through the right side of the heart.
Mathew
J
J
Powari
M
M
D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000473:pathology*; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000473:pathology*