Background and aims: The differential diagnosis of a right upper lobe pulmonary opacity in an elderly afebrile patient includes infectious and malignant etiology. However, unilateral lung edema should also be included in the differential diagnosis.
Methods: Case report of an 80-year-old afebrile patient who presented with cough, dyspnea and blood-tinged sputum and had an isolated right upper lobe infiltrate on chest X-ray on whom a diagnostic work-up including computed tomography scan of the chest and echocardiography was performed.
Results: Bilateral alveolar opacities and pleural effusions, not apparent on the chest X-ray, and a flail posterior leaflet with severe mitral valve regurgitation were revealed. His symptoms and findings responded to diuretic treatment.
Conclusion: Pulmonary edema should be considered in a patient with mitral valve regurgitation presenting with a unilateral lung infiltrate. Chest computed tomography scan findings consistent with heart failure and echocardiography demonstrating mitral valve regurgitation are the main clues to the diagnosis. Diuretic therapy should cause a rapid improvement of the radiologic and clinical findings.
Keywords: mitral insufficiency; mitral regurgitation; pulmonary edema; unilateral.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.