All issues > Volume 50(10); 2007

Case Report

Korean J Pediatr. 2007;50(10):1030-1033. Published online October 15, 2007.

A case of pulmonary thromboembolism in a healthy infant

Woo-Yeon WY Choi¹, Young-Seok YS Choi¹, Soo-Min SM Oh¹, Young-Kuk YK Cho¹, Jae-Sook JS Ma¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwang-ju, Korea

Correspondence Jae-Sook JS Ma ,Email: gsoo@jnu.ac.kr

Abstract

A pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE), which is a sudden blockage in a pulmonary artery, usually due to a blood clot, is rare in children. The clinical presentation is often subtle or masked by the underlying clinical condition and the condition must be suspected during clinical testing. Although the choice of treatment depends on the clinical presentation, anticoagulation is the mainstay of therapy for children with PTE. We report the case of a healthy 1-month-old boy who presented with hemoptysis without hemodynamic instability. He was diagnosed based on chest computed tomography with angiography and 99mTc macroaggregated albumin lung perfusion scintigraphy and treated with low-molecular-weight heparin.

Keywords :Pulmonary thromboembolism, Infant, Low molecular weight heparin