Pulmonary Thromboembolism Presenting as Multiple Pulmonary Cavities

A 38 years old male patient presented to the emergency department with acute severe retrosternal chest pain and was found to have pulmonary thromboembolism. The patient developed new necrotic lung cavities each day due to the dissemination of emboli from the thrombus. The cause of thrombus was found to be protein C deficiency, which is an inherited thrombophilia. The interesting features in this case are multiple lung cavitations and high grade fever, which was attributed to pulmonary thromboembolism. The patient improved symptomatically with anticoagulants and antiplatelets.