Solitary pulmonary capillary hemangioma mimicking a preinvasive malignant lesion in an asymptomatic middle-aged female patient.

Abstract

Pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis (PCH) is a rare disease characterized by a proliferation of capillaries in the alveolar septa, bronchial and venous walls, pleura, and regional lymph nodes. However, the etiology of the disease remains unknown due to its rarity. Therefore, we present a case of a solitary PCH lesion without symptoms in a 38-year-old female patient. According to computed tomography, she was diagnosed with lung carcinoma, indicated by a tiny nodule with ground-glass opacity detected in her right upper lung. However, no other lesions were detected on systemic examination. Consequently, partial lung resection was conducted, since the lesion was suspected of lung adenocarcinoma. Pathologic results showed that the thick alveolar septa were caused by capillary growth without cellular atypia and hardly any infiltration of inflammatory cells. Finally, we diagnosed the pulmonary lesion as PCH, although solitary PCH has previously been reported in a few case reports. Therefore, further case studies are essential to clarify the causes of PCH.