Idiopathic pulmonary artery aneurysm: A case report

Pulmonary artery aneurysm is an uncommon disease with a reported incidence of 1 in 14000 in autopsies. As the symptoms are non-specific, limited number of cases are diagnosed antemortem. It can grow to an impressive size before identification and life-threatening complications could occur in the setting of rupture or dissection. This communication reports a death of a 56-year-old man, who presented with a history of difficulty in breathing and dry cough, right parahilar opacity of unknown origin in the chest x-ray and who died due to respiratory failure following obstruction of the tracheobronchial tree by an idiopathic right pulmonary artery aneurysm. It highlights that although most of the patients present with non-specific symptoms, pulmonary artery aneurysms are usually apparent on chest x-ray and must be taken into consideration in the differential diagnosis of mediastinal masses.