Acute Pulmonary Embolism Mimicking Covid-19 Pneumonia

Abstract

We report the case of a 21 years old male patient, with a history of asthma since the age of 8 months, without follow-up, presenting a severe respiratory distress appeared suddenly, associated with a right basithoracic pain, and moderate hemoptysis. The non-contrast CT-chest scan showed a basal ground-glass opacity of the right lung leading to suspicion of Covid 19s’ pneumonia. Laboratory tests reveal an elevated levels of D-dimers (D-D), a thrombocytopenia, a neutrophilic leukocytosis and a hyper eosinophilia. The molecular test RT-PCR is negative. With the persistence of the right-side basithoracic pain and the presence of a hyper eosinophilia and increased levels of D-Dimers. A thoracic CT angiography was indicated that shows a bilateral distal pulmonary embolism with a right-sided basal sub segmental ischemia. We discuss a fortuitous discovery of an idiopathic pulmonary embolism associated to peripheral basal ground-glass opacities similar to the radiological findings found in the case of a SARS-Cov-2 pneumonia.