title: Acute concomitant pulmonary artery and aortic dissection with rupture.
abstract: Pulmonary artery (PA) dissection is uncommon and may lead to rupture and sudden death if encountered. A 63-year-old man presented to our emergency room with episodic left chest pain radiating to the back followed by shortness of breath. A 64-row multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) revealed ruptured dissection of the PA and the aorta with hemopericardium, hemomediastinum, and prominent extravasated blood along the central bronchovascular bundles of both lungs. The patient experienced cardiogenic shock immediately following CT study and died after resuscitation. Concomitant PA and aortic dissection with rupture is extremely rare with the pathogenesis remaining investigated. MDCT proves to be a powerful tool in its diagnosis for a timely surgical repair if the patient could survive to have the operation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, 325, Section 2, Cheng Gong Road, Taipei 114, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsian-He
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Ching
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tzao
authors.forename: Chien-Sung
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Guang-Huang
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Cheng-Yu
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D017545:Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011651:Pulmonary Artery; D012421:Rupture; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*