Case 19-1985

Abstract

Presentation of CaseA 46-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of cough, dyspnea, and obstruction of the right pulmonary artery.She was well until six months earlier, when she began to have a hacking cough, which was briefly productive and then became dry. Soon thereafter she began to experience exertional dyspnea, without fever. X-ray films of the chest, obtained elsewhere, showed an elevated right hemidiaphragm but were otherwise normal. Erythromycin was prescribed, with temporary improvement, but the cough worsened when the medication was discontinued. The hematocrit was 40 per cent, and the white-cell count 9100. Five weeks later . . .