[A case of primary pulmonary intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery]

We report the pulmonary intimal sarcoma of the pulmonary artery which is encountered infrequently. The patient, a 67-year-old man, was admitted with right heart failure. Diagnosis was not established completely by computed tomography of the thorax, pulmonary angiogram and pulmonary scintigram, therefore chronic pulmonary thromboembolism was suspected. Palliative resection was performed with cardiopulmonary bypass and total circulatory arrest. Pathologic examination of the resected tumor revealed pulmonary intimal sarcoma, which originated from the pulmonary artery. The patient died four months postoperatively. The cause of death was determined by autopsy to be recurrent pulmonary intimal sarcoma invading the left atrium and multiple metastasis of the brain, pancreas, adrenal glands and right lung.