Thoracic endometriosis presenting as a catamenial hemothorax with discordant video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery

Matthew R McCann, William B Schenk, Aziza Nassar, Santo Maimone
Radiology case reports · 2020 · vol. 15(9) , pp. 1419–1422 · doi:10.1016/j.radcr.2020.05.064 · PMID:32642009 · PMC7334551 · W3038610878
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 4 in-corpus citations
📄 Open PDF View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This case report details a 47-year-old woman with catamenial hemothorax caused by thoracic endometriosis, highlighting diagnostic challenges and the importance of immunohistochemistry.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Thoracic endometriosis is uncommon and may be overlooked, resulting in a delay in diagnosis. We describe the case of a 47-year-old woman presenting with acute onset pleuritic pain and hemothorax secondary to this rare entity. The diagnosis of thoracic endometriosis is driven by a compatible clinical history coupled with supportive imaging and immunohistochemical findings. Imaging features lack specificity, however, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging play an important role in identifying pleural/diaphragmatic involvement and excluding other more common diseases. Immunohistochemical pleural fluid analysis can confirm the presence of hormone receptor-positive endometrial glands and stroma. We illustrate a few potential diagnostic pitfalls, specifically the inconsistency in diagnostic yield of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery/thoracentesis and the variable temporal association of patients' symptoms and pathology with menstruation. Prompt identification of thoracic endometriosis is important as it enables early institution of therapy and limits future complications.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisthoracic_endometriosis

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (14)

Cited by (4)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-11T06:19:48.454388+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:21:53.586419+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK