Chen JL, Mei DE, Yu CG, Zhao ZY. Right-heart contrast echocardiography reveals missed patent ductus arteriosus in a postpartum woman with pulmonary embolism: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2021; 9(3): 639-643 [PMID: 33553402 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i3.639]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Zhi-Yu Zhao, MD, Attending Doctor, Department of Echocardiography, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, No. 238 Jiefang Road, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430060, Hubei Province, China. 2228661627@qq.com
Research Domain of This Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
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 Clin Cases. Jan 26, 2021; 9(3): 639-643 Published online Jan 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i3.639
Right-heart contrast echocardiography reveals missed patent ductus arteriosus in a postpartum woman with pulmonary embolism: A case report
Jin-Ling Chen, Dan-E Mei, Cai-Gui Yu, Zhi-Yu Zhao
Jin-Ling Chen, Dan-E Mei, Cai-Gui Yu, Zhi-Yu Zhao, Department of Echocardiography, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: Chen JL designed the report; Zhao ZY collected the patient's clinical data; Mei DE and Yu CG analyzed the data and wrote the paper; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report.
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 NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Yu Zhao, MD, Attending Doctor, Department of Echocardiography, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, No. 238 Jiefang Road, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430060, Hubei Province, China. 2228661627@qq.com
Received: September 17, 2020 Peer-review started: September 17, 2020 First decision: November 26, 2020 Revised: December 6, 2020 Accepted: December 10, 2020 Article in press: December 10, 2020 Published online: January 26, 2021
Core Tip
Core Tip: A 31-year-old woman diagnosed with postpartum pulmonary embolism was readmitted to hospital, when conventional echocardiography found pulmonary artery hypertension. Right-heart contrast echocardiography showed microbubbles appearing in the left ventricle, with a slight delay after right-heart filling with microbubbles but no microbubbles in the left atrium; microbubbles also appeared in the descending aorta almost simultaneously to the right pulmonary artery. Computed tomography angiography showed no sign of pulmonary artery embolism but did show a patent ductus arteriosus. Ultimately, right-heart contrast echocardiography showed a special imaging sequence for unexplained pulmonary artery hypertension with aortic valve insufficiency and simultaneous patent ductus arteriosus.
