High-risk pulmonary embolism in a patient with acute dissecting aortic aneurysm.

In the last decades, an increased incidence of pulmonary embolism (PE) and acute dissection (AD) of aortic aneurysms has been registered mostly due to increased availability of advanced imaging techniques. They seldom occur concomitantly in the same patient. In this paper, we present the clinical challenges and controversies of diagnosis and therapy in a 70-year-old male patient with an atypical presentation of high-risk PE occurring concomitantly with a silent AD of a thoracic aortic aneurysm.