Septic pulmonary embolism due to periodontal disease in a patient with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia

A patient suffering from multiple episodes of fever and chills due to septic pulmonary emboli is reported. Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia was involving the mucous membranes of his oral cavity and the stomach but not the pulmonary vascular bed. Since no other infectious embolic sources were found and the patient's pulmonary infection was not extirpated by a prolonged course of antibiotics but only cured after surgical treatment of multiple periodontal abscesses, we speculate that gingival arteriovenous malformations being involved by periodontitis were the source of small septic emboli.