Large patent ductus arteriosus in a 44-year-old woman leading to calcium deposition in the left atrium and mitral and aortic valves.

This report describes unusual autopsy findings in a 44-year-old woman who had a large, calcified patent ductus arteriosus that produced substantial left-to-right shunting. The patient died in 1962, 7 days after patch closure of the aortic orifice of the ductus. Numerous calcific deposits were present in the mural left atrial endocardium, the mitral valve leaflets and annulus, and the aortic valve cusps. The cause of the left-sided calcific deposits was perhaps related to the patient's several-decades-old giant aortopulmonary shunt, causing a major increase in the volume of blood passing through the left-sided cardiac chambers in comparison with the volume in the right side. To our knowledge, such findings in a patient with patent ductus arteriosus have not been reported previously.