Pulmonary arterial ectasia

Pulmonary arterial ectasia refers to more diffuse dilatation of the pulmonary arteries without a focal pulmonary arterial aneurysm. At the time of the writing upper limit of normal (90percentile) for the main pulmonary arteries is taken at just under 29 mm for males and just under 27 mm for females.

Pathology

It can arise from a large number of factors with pulmonary arterial hypertension considered the most common.

Other conditions include

• rheumatologic/vasculitic conditions
  • Behçet disease
  • Hughes-Stovin syndrome
  • Takayasu arteritis
• connective tissue disease
  • Marfan syndrome
  • Loeys-Dietz syndrome
  • Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
  • cystic medial necrosis
• infectious etiology
  • tuberculosis: tuberculosis vasculopathy
  • syphilis: syphilis vasculopathy
• trauma: blunt / penetrating
• idiopathic

Some suggest that presence of an ectatic pulmonary arterial diameter in the context of normal pulmonary arteries pressures as a benign finding .