Congenital lobar emphysema with cystic lung abnormality: Antenatal ultrasound appearance

Abstract

A 33-year-old woman at 23 +2 weeks of gestational age was referred for consultation due to the findings of a cyst in the right lung of the fetus. Prenatal ultrasound showed a 3 cm-sized hypoechogenic cyst, suggesting congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation. As the cyst grew and compressed the heart, serial cyst aspirations were performed. The cyst was proved to be congenital lobar emphysema on postnatal histopathologic exam. No other anomaly was found. Only few cases of congenital lobar emphysema (CLE) have been reported up to date and the prenatal diagnosis is extremely rare. Typically, fetal sonographic features of CLE have a bright echogenic lung and, to date, only 3 cases have been reported to have a cystic lesion. We report a case of a fetus with a cystic lung abnormality and postnatally proved congenital lobar emphysema.

Outcomes of Cases of Prenatally-Diagnosed Congenital Pulmonary Airway Malformation

“… 25 Most of the cases in the literature with CLH and BC are diagnosed after delivery because of the lack of definitive ultrasonographic features during prenatal examinations. 26 27 However, the vascularization of BPS is different: it has direct vascular branches originating from the descending aorta. It is not always possible to show the vascular flow in the BPS mass with Doppler velocimetry measurements, so postnatal diagnosis is common in these cases.…”