Xu JQ, Jiang MX, Wang F, Yang KQ, Xu YJ, Wang YJ, Dong SJ. Coronary heart disease with pulmonary embolism: A case report. World J Cardiol 2025; 17(2): 101588 [DOI: 10.4330/wjc.v17.i2.101588]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Sheng-Jun Dong, MD, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, No. 661 Huanghe 2nd Road, Binzhou 256600, Shandong Province, China. dsj200800@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
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/
Jun-Qing Xu, Meng-Xin Jiang, Feng Wang, Kai-Qiang Yang, Yu-Jiu Wang, Sheng-Jun Dong, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou 256600, Shandong Province, China
Ying-Jiang Xu, Department of Interventional Vascular Surgery, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou 256600, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Dong SJ, Wang YJ, and Xu YJ designed the paper; Wang F, Yang KQ and Jang MX acquired data; Xu JQ drafted the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82200981; and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, No. ZR2022QH358; and Special Funds of Taishan Scholars Project of Shandong Province, No. tsqn202312384.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sheng-Jun Dong, MD, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, No. 661 Huanghe 2nd Road, Binzhou 256600, Shandong Province, China. dsj200800@163.com
Received: September 19, 2024 Revised: December 25, 2024 Accepted: January 21, 2025 Published online: February 26, 2025 Processing time: 158 Days and 12.6 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Coronary heart disease (CHD) and pulmonary embolism (PE) are thrombotic diseases. Patients with CHD and PE are common in clinical practice. However, the clinical diagnosis of PE is challenging due to overlapping primary symptoms, such as chest tightness and dyspnea. This confluence frequently leads to the misdiagnosis of PE, thus precipitating treatment delays and compromising patient outcomes. Herein, we report the case of a patient with both diseases who underwent surgery and medication therapy.
CASE SUMMARY
A 51-year-old man with a history of hypertension for 2 years visited a local hospital because of paroxysmal chest tightness for 1 d and was diagnosed with CHD. However, he refused hospitalization. He visited our hospital for the treatment of recurring symptoms. A comprehensive examination after admission revealed elevated D-dimer levels, and computed tomography pulmonary angiography was performed to confirm the diagnosis of PE. The patient successfully underwent coronary artery bypass grafting with anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs and had a prognosis.
CONCLUSION
D-dimer is useful in screening for PE, whereas computed tomography pulmonary angiography is important for diagnosis. For patients with CHD and PE, coronary artery bypass grafting combined with anticoagulant and antiplatelet therapy is feasible.
Core Tip: Coronary heart disease and pulmonary embolism are common cardiovascular diseases encountered in clinical practice. Their primary symptoms, such as chest tightness and dyspnea, are similar and lack specificity. Therefore, when these two diseases coexist in clinical practice, they are frequently misdiagnosed or missed. Here, we report the case of a patient who presented with paroxysmal chest tightness lasting 2 d. He was diagnosed with coronary heart disease combined with pulmonary embolism. The patient underwent coronary artery bypass grafting and received anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs, resulting in a favorable prognosis.
