Buerger's disease and pulmonary hypertension: a rare association?

Thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO), Buerger's disease, is an inflammatory thrombotic occlusive vascular disorder that typically involves small and medium-sized arteries of both the upper and lower extremities. This disease usually affects young adult males between the ages of 40 and 45 years old who smoke tobacco products. Clinically significant extrapulmonary involvement is exceptional. We describe a patient with elevated pulmonary arterial pressures associated with TAO who had no other discernible causes of secondary pulmonary hypertension.