Hampton's hump in a patient with endocarditis and septic emboli.

We discuss a case of a 20-year-old woman presenting with chest pain found to have a Hampton's hump on chest x-ray and corresponding wedge infarct on computed tomographic scan. Contrary to our suspicion that this febrile and tachycardic patient had a pulmonary embolism, she was later determined to have a septic embolus secondary to endocarditis. We highlight the difficulties in diagnosing certain cases of endocarditis in the emergency department, as well as the difficulties in distinguishing septic emboli from pulmonary emboli,especially with plain radiographs.