A coronary artery crossed embolism of bone-marrow origin: proof of connections between pulmonary arteries and veins.

The paper describes a case of exceptionally rare crossed embolism of the coronary artery. The embolus material originated in bone-marrow released from rib fractures which occurred during resuscitation attempts. Autopsy did not reveal any anatomical abnormalities of the circulatory system, nor any disease-related changes, which could explain the occurrence of this embolism type, and therefore the only possible explanation is the presence of direct connections between pulmonary arteries and veins. The confirmation of this theory is the bone-marrow embolism of the pulmonary vein detected in the second case.