Radiopaque pulmonary arteries on chest radiography.

We report a case of a 58-year-old male with cirrhosis and upper gastrointestinal bleeding who developed multiple lipiodol pulmonary emboli after endoscopic injection sclerotherapy for gastric variceal bleeding. The patient did not have any respiratory symptoms after the sclerotherapy. A chest radiograph, obtained 1 day after the procedure for the evaluation of fever, demonstrated multiple tubular radiopacities in both hilar regions. CT confirmed the existence of multiple radiopaque emboli within the main pulmonary arteries, a small pleural effusion, and no evidence of associated pulmonary parenchymal changes. The patient had no further symptoms, and the radiologic opacities persisted on radiographs obtained 3 months later.