New Entities and Diagnostic Challenges in Pediatric Lung Disease

The differential diagnosis of diffuse lung disease in children differs considerably from adults, and analysis of pediatric lung biopsies may prove challenging for pathologists with more extensive exposure to adult lung biopsies. Biopsy diagnosis of pediatric lung disease continues to evolve as new pathologic entities are recognized and new genetic determinants of disease are discovered. This article describes the clinical characteristics, pathologic features, and differential diagnosis of challenging and recently described entities in pediatric lung disease. The specific entities discussed include alveolar capillary dysplasia, genetic disorders of surfactant metabolism, pulmonary interstitial glycogenosis, and neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia of infancy.