Hampton's Hump as a Radiologic Clue to Pulmonary Embolism in a Young Patient

Q: What imaging sign in the case helped clinicians suspect pulmonary embolism?

Chest CT showed Hampton's hump: wedge-shaped, subpleural opacities with apices directed toward the hilum, consistent with pulmonary infarction.

Q: How was the diagnosis confirmed?

CT pulmonary angiography confirmed pulmonary embolism affecting the main and segmental branches of the right lower pulmonary artery.

Q: What treatment was given and what was the outcome?

The patient received oral rivaroxaban, with rapid symptomatic improvement and sustained recovery on follow-up at 6 months, 1 year, and 18 months.

Sep 29, 2026

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Pulmonary embolism can occur in young adults even when traditional risk factors are subtle, as illustrated by prolonged immobility related to mobile gaming. The case highlights Hampton's hump on chest CT, a wedge-shaped, subpleural finding typically linked to pulmonary infarction, yet still essential for diagnosis. Early recognition supported timely anticoagulation and led to favorable outcomes in a patient without major risk factors, with sustained recovery during follow-up.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Case Presentation

Diagnosis and Imaging Findings

Treatment and Follow-up

Author Contributions

Consent

Conflicts of Interest

Data Availability Statement

References

Respirology Case Reports CLINICAL IMAGE OPEN ACCESS Hampton's Hump as a Radiologic Clue to Pulmonary Embolism in a Young Patient Guo Li | Ming-yan Jing | Min Pang Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Xichong County People's Hospital, Nanchong, Sichuan, China Correspondence: Guo Li ([406289036@qq.com](406289036@qq.com)) Received: 4 July 2025 | Revised: 1 December 2025 | Accepted: 13 December 2025 Associate Editor: Yuanlin Song Keywords: computed tomography | hemoptysis | pulmonary embolism | rivaroxaban | wedge-shaped opacity | ABSTRACT
Pulmonary embolism may occur even in young adults with subtle risk factors such as prolonged immobility from mobile gaming. Hampton's hump on chest CT, though classically associated with infarction, remains a critical clue for diagnosis. Early recognition enables prompt anticoagulation and favorable outcomes, even in low-risk individuals. | | | --- | --- | | A 31-year-old man presented to the emergency department | formation [1] . Despite the lungs' dual blood supply, pulmonary | | with a 2-day history of cough and hemoptysis. He was a current | infarction can occur and is classically indicated by Hampton's | | smoker and had undergone internal fixation for a right clavicle | hump [2], as seen on CT in this case. | | fracture 6 months earlier. His oxygen saturation on room air | | | was 90%, and physical examination was unremarkable. Chest | | | computed tomography (CT) revealed multiple subpleural solid | | | and ground-glass opacities in the right lower lobe, wedge- | | | shaped with apices directed toward the hilum (Figure 1), con- | | | sistent with Hampton's hump. Arterial blood gas showed a | | | partial pressure of oxygen of 76.5 mmHg (reference, 80–100), | | | and D-dimer was elevated at 2.88 mg/L FEU (reference, < 0.5) . | | | CT pulmonary angiography confirmed pulmonary embolism | | | affecting the main and segmental branches of the right lower | | | pulmonary artery (Figure 2) . There was no evidence of right | | | heart strain or lower extremity deep vein thrombosis. The pa- | | | tient was treated with oral rivaroxaban, leading to rapid symp- | | | tomatic improvement. Telephone follow-up at 6 months, 1 year, | | | and 18 months showed sustained clinical recovery without | | | recurrence, although the patient declined repeat chest imag- | | | ing. Pulmonary embolism is uncommon in young adults. Our | | | patient, a smoker with no major risk factors, later recalled | FIGURE 1 | Axial chest CT showed multiple subpleural consolidations | | prolonged immobility while playing mobile games prior to | with ground-glass opacities in the right lower lobe, wedge-shaped with | | symptom onset, which may have contributed to thrombus | their apices pointing toward the hilum, consistent with Hampton's hump. | | This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
© 2026 The Author(s). Respirology Case Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of The Asian Pacific Society of Respirology. | | Respirology Case Reports, 2026; 14:e70456 1 of 2 [https://doi.org/10.1002/rcr2.70456](https://doi.org/10.1002/rcr2.70456) FIGURE 2 | CT pulmonary angiography revealed pulmonary embolism in the right lower pulmonary artery with a distal wedge-shaped infarct. Author Contributions All authors were involved in the clinical care and diagnosis of the patient. Guo Li drafted the manuscript. Ming-yan Jing and Min Pang critically revised the report. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript. Consent The authors declare that written informed consent was obtained for the publication of this manuscript and accompanying images using the consent form provided by the Journal.

FAQs

What imaging sign in the case helped clinicians suspect pulmonary embolism?

Chest CT showed Hampton's hump: wedge-shaped, subpleural opacities with apices directed toward the hilum, consistent with pulmonary infarction.

How was the diagnosis confirmed?

CT pulmonary angiography confirmed pulmonary embolism affecting the main and segmental branches of the right lower pulmonary artery.

What treatment was given and what was the outcome?

The patient received oral rivaroxaban, with rapid symptomatic improvement and sustained recovery on follow-up at 6 months, 1 year, and 18 months.

Sep 29, 2026

Upload by supergirl