title: Knot in a pulmonary thromboembolus.
abstract: 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.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mathew
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Powari
mesh_terms: D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000473:pathology*; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000473:pathology*