“Bubbly lung consolidation” - A highly specific imaging marker for pulmonary infarction

Abstract

A 23-year-old male with a history of smoking presented with dyspnea and pleuritic chest pain. His CXR showed pleural-based wedge-shaped opacity in the right lower zone. Non-contrast CT thorax showed central air lucencies without air bronchogram in the opacity (bubbly lung consolidation), suggestive of pulmonary infarction. CT pulmonary angiogram showed a large thrombus involving the right pulmonary artery. Pulmonary infarction affects only a minority of patients with pulmonary embolism. Recent literature suggests that younger individuals without major cardiovascular disease states present more commonly with pulmonary infarction contrary to the earlier studies. “Bubbly lung consolidation” is a highly specific imaging marker for pulmonary infarction and CT pulmonary angiogram has to be expedited to rule out pulmonary embolism. Our case report demonstrates this classical finding and highlights the importance of identifying various CT signs of pulmonary infarction.

Keywords

• bubbly lung consolidation
• pulmonary infarction
• specific imaging marker