Prenatal diagnosis of pulmonary sequestration using three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound

To investigate the contribution of three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound to the prenatal diagnosis of pulmonary sequestration.

Prenatal three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound was used to screen for an abnormal pulmonary blood supply in eight fetuses with hyperechogenic lung lesions and to image the pulmonary blood supply in 50 normal controls. A comparison was made with postnatal findings.

Postnatally the eight pulmonary lesions were found to be an isolated pulmonary sequestration (n = 3), a microcystic congenital adenomatoid malformation (n = 4), and a mixed (macrocystic and microcystic) congenital adenomatoid malformation (n = 1). Prenatal three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound demonstrated an abnormal blood supply in all cases of pulmonary sequestration and in none of the other cases. Among the three cases that turned out to be pulmonary sequestrations, conventional two-dimensional ultrasound failed to identify the feeding vessel in one case and identified it at a later stage of gestation than did three-dimensional power Doppler in the other two.

Prenatal three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound may be useful in identifying the feeding vessel and thus establishing the diagnosis of pulmonary sequestration in the presence of a hyperechogenic pulmonary lesion, allowing its differentiation from congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation.