PRENATALLY DIAGNOSED CYSTIC LUNG LESIONS

Debbie L Nisbet, Ultrasound fellow, Lachlan de Crespigny, Associate Professor Ultrasound Department, Royal Women's Hospital, Carlton, Victoria.

Introduction
Prenatal ultrasound can be a sensitive method for the detection of pulmonary abnormalities, although cystic adenomatoid malformations (CAM) can be difficult to differentiate from other cystic lung lesions. Fetal MRI may further improve the accuracy of prenatal diagnosis of fetal lung lesions, with some groups reporting high accuracy (1) although others have found it much less helpful (2). A woman carrying a fetus with a cystic lung lesion (CLL) may be inappropriately given a poor prognosis. This could happen either because of misdiagnosis, or because the sometimes florid findings of a CAM of the lung are misinterpreted as indicating that the condition is untreatable. Indeed a dismal outlook was suggested by some early publications (3).
In this paper the important features of disease processes leading to CLL will be described and illustrated.

Citation
De Crespigny L and Nisbet D. Prenatally diagnosed cystic lung lesions.
ASUM Bulletin 2001.2:3-8.