Similarities Between Community-Acquired Pneumonia and Pulmonary Embolism

The presentation of community-acquired pneumonia with abdominal pain and a lower lobe pulmonary infiltrate1 is reminiscent of the clinical presentation with abdominal pain in a 53-year-old man in whom the eventual diagnosis was pulmonary embolism.1 Computed tomography angiography showed evidence of pulmonary embolism, and also showed an infiltrate in the right lung base, thought to represent a pulmonary infarct.2 As in the reported case of community-acquired pneumonia,1 ST-segment elevation in leads V1 to V4 can also occur in pulmonary embolism,3 in the latter instance with absence of autopsy evidence of acute myocardial infarction or coronary occlusion.