Management of asymptomatic pulmonary vein aneurysm

• Main Authors: Jason Coffman, Kristi Pence, Puja G. Khaitan, Edward Y. Chan, Min P. Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2017-01-01
• Series: Respiratory Medicine Case Reports
• Subjects: Pulmonary venous aneurysm; Pulmonary vein varix; Pulmonary angiography
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213007116301599

Aneurysm of a pulmonary vein is a rare vascular anomaly that is usually discovered incidentally as a pulmonary nodule or mediastinal mass. Most patients do not have any symptoms but some patients can present with dyspnea, hemoptysis, or cerebral thromboembolism. Proper diagnosis is crucial as to avoid unnecessary testing or surgical procedures. We highlight a case of an asymptomatic 59-year-old female with a pulmonary vein aneurysm presenting as a 1.5 cm right infrahilar nodule on contrast-enhanced CT during evaluation for acute cholecystitis. Further investigation with MRA revealed that it was vascular in nature, and pulmonary angiography showed dilation of the right inferior pulmonary vein with no communication to the pulmonary artery. On serial imaging, there has been no change in the size of the aneurysm. A small non-enlarging pulmonary vein aneurysm should be managed expectantly.