Case report Venous thromboembolism in a patient with noninvasive thymoma and a history of pemphigus

Abstract

A case of a 69-year-old man, admitted due to an acute episode of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is described. He had a 3-year history of ‘asymptomatic’ (revealed on routine chest X-ray, but undiagnosed) tumor of anterior mediastinum, and a 8-year history of pemphigus vulgaris treated mainly with steroids. Three months following VTE episode he underwent tumor resection and histopathologic evaluation showed noninvasive, type AB thymoma. Gradual pemphigus remission started some weeks later. We analyse the relationship between thymoma, pemphigus and VTE, and emphasize the usefulness of echocardiographic thymoma imaging as a method complementary to computed tomography/magnetic resonance.