Mujeeb Rahman KK, Durgeshwar G, Mohapatra PR, Panigrahi MK, Mahanty S. Pulmonary infarct masquerading as community-acquired pneumonia in the COVID-19 scenario: A case report. World J Respirol 2024; 13(1): 1-6 [DOI: 10.5320/wjr.v13.i1.1]
Corresponding Author of This Article
K K Mujeeb Rahman, MD, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, VPS Lakeshore Hospital and Research Centre, Kochi, 682040, India. mujeebrahmantmc@gmail.com.
Research Domain of This Article
Respiratory System
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Respirol. Jan 26, 2024; 13(1): 1-6 Published online Jan 26, 2024. doi: 10.5320/wjr.v13.i1.1
Pulmonary infarct masquerading as community-acquired pneumonia in the COVID-19 scenario: A case report
K K Mujeeb Rahman, Gopal Durgeshwar, Prasanta R Mohapatra, Manoj Kumar Panigrahi, Siladitya Mahanty
K K Mujeeb Rahman, Gopal Durgeshwar, Prasanta R Mohapatra, Manoj Kumar Panigrahi, Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar 751019, India
Siladitya Mahanty, Department of Radiodiagnosis, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar 751019, India
Author contributions: Mujeeb Rahman KK conceptualized the idea and wrote the initial draft; Gopal D, Prasanta RM, and Manoj KP contributed to the writing and critically reviewed the final draft; Mahanty S provided the images and contributed to the writing; All authors approved the final version of the manuscript before submission.
Informed consent statement: The study participant's wife provided informed written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: K K Mujeeb Rahman, MD, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, VPS Lakeshore Hospital and Research Centre, Kochi, 682040, India. mujeebrahmantmc@gmail.com.
Received: September 29, 2023 Peer-review started: September 29, 2023 First decision: October 9, 2023 Revised: December 12, 2023 Accepted: December 27, 2023 Article in press: December 27, 2023 Published online: January 26, 2024 Processing time: 117 Days and 21.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Pulmonary embolism (PE) requires a high degree of clinical suspicion for its diagnosis and can mimic pneumonia due to its clinical, radiological, and laboratory findings. Co-existence of PE and pneumonia can also occur, which is surprisingly more common than appreciated.
CASE SUMMARY
Here, we report a case of a young male who initially presented during the peak of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic with features of pneumonia. He was kept under observation and was later diagnosed and treated for a right main pulmonary artery embolism without any identifiable source of thrombosis.
CONCLUSION
PE and pneumonia share common clinical, radiological, and laboratory findings that may delay the diagnosis of PE. Hypoxia disproportionate to the extent of radiological involvement could be an indicator of an underlying PE.
Core Tip: Pulmonary embolism can present radiologically as pneumonia with similar clinical symptoms and signs. This case highlights the importance of understanding how a pulmonary infarct can present as pneumonia.
