[Thromboembolic chronic pulmonary hypertension--a fake primary pulmonary hypertension--case report]

Chronic pulmonary hypertension (CPHT) is on the third place of causes leading to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients over fifty. Two of the rare causes of CPHT (< or = 7%) are: chronic thromboembolic hypertension and primary one; these two diseases resemble in many situations and, consequently, the diagnosis is frequently difficult (especially when risk factors for recurrent pulmonary thromboembolism are not present). Our case presentation is just such a situation; only pulmonary perfusion scintigraphy allowed us to make the right diagnosis--chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension--in an "apparently clear" primary pulmonary hypertension.