Large vessel vasculitis with an isolated lesion of a single-lobe pulmonary artery

Abstract

Chronic pulmonary arterial obstructions are caused mostly by chronic pulmonary artery thromboembolism and rarely by vasculitis or intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery. We herein report an unusual case of a 42-year-old woman with a solitary obstruction of the pulmonary artery in the right lower lobe of her lung. Because we could not exclude the possibility of intimal sarcoma, middle and lower lobectomy was performed. The resected specimens revealed large vessel vasculitis (LVV) and an isolated lesion in the right lower lobe pulmonary artery. LVV should therefore be considered in the differential diagnosis for single pulmonary arterial stenosis or obstruction.