[Clinical, radiologic, pathological features and diagnosis of 14 cases with interstitial lung disease in children]

The pediatric interstitial lung disease is a group of poorly understood disease entities. This study aimed to better understand the clinical features, radiological manifestations and pathological patterns of pediatric interstitial lung disease.

Patients with diffuse lung disease seen in the year 2009 in 7 hospitals were studied by the Pediatric Interstitial Lung Disease Cooperative Group. Nineteen patients underwent lung biopsy, 11 cases were male, 8 were female and their age ranged from 1 year and 4 months to 13 years. Respiratory tract secretions were obtained for bacterial culture, respiratory virus antigen examination, mycoplasma antibody, EB virus, cytomegalovirus, and herpes simplex viruses antibody detection were performed. The CT or HRCT of the lung and blood-gas analysis and lung biopsy were performed for all the patients. One case underwent open lung biopsy, two cases received percutaneous biopsy, and other 16 cases were experienced video-assisted thoracoscopic biopsy.

Five cases had been excluded, for one case had fungal infection, one had abnormal pneumoangiogram, one had sclerosing hemangioma, and two had no sufficient data. The remaining 14 cases were included into the analysis. All the 14 cases had cough, 12 of them also had tachypnoea, four cases had rales and five had clubbing. High resolution CT showed that 12 cases had ground-glass opacification, 1 had diffuse micronodular opacities, the pathological pattern of this case was pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis, and in the case of diffuse reticulonodular opacities and cysts, the pathology of the lung was NSIP. All the 14 cases had the proof of the diagnosis or the type of the pathology. Four cases were diagnosed by pathology of the lung, including 1 case of pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis, 2 cases of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, 1 case of lipoid pneumonia. Clinical-radiologic-pathologic (C-R-P) diagnosis of the other 10 cases were as follows: 4 cases had secondary interstitial lung disease, one secondary to LES, one to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and 2 had hypersensitivity pneumonitis. The other 6 cases had idiopathic interstitial pneumonia with unknown causes, of whom 4 cases had non-specific interstitial pneumonia, 1 case had acute interstitial pneumonia and 1 case had lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia.

Pediatric interstitial lung disease is a heterogeneous group of disorders. The clinical manifestation of these disorders was not specific, and the main symptoms were cough and tachypnoea. The ground-glass opacification was the main change in the HRCT of the lung. The different interstitial lung diseases have different pathological features. The C-R-P diagnostic analysis may enhance the rate of specific diagnosis and the awareness level of the pediatrician about the interstitial lung disease in childhood.