Radiology, Vol 187, 807-810, Copyright © 1993 by Radiological Society of North America

ARTICLES

Pediatric lung transplantation: radiographic-histopathologic correlation

LS Medina, MJ Siegel, PA Bejarano, HS Glazer, DJ Anderson and GB Mallory Jr
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110.

Chest radiographic and histopathologic findings were retrospectively reviewed to determine the spectrum of findings in 16 children who underwent a total of 19 lung transplantations. Radiographs were evaluated for air-space disease, interstitial disease, Kerley B lines, pleural fluid, and cardiac size, and the interval from transplantation to the onset of complications was determined. Radiographic findings were correlated with 62 histopathologic diagnoses obtained from 51 transbronchial and open lung biopsy specimens. The final histopathologic diagnoses were acute rejection (n = 19), chronic rejection (n = 8), infection (n = 11), lymphoproliferative disorder (n = 4), and nonspecific (n = 20). The radiographic patterns of the complications were not significantly different. Seventy-nine percent (15 of 19) of episodes of acute rejection and 64% (seven of 11) of episodes of infection occurred within 5 weeks of transplantation, while 63% (five of eight) of the episodes of chronic rejection occurred after this period. Since chest radiographs are nonspecific, caution should be exercised in basing clinical decisions only on the radiographic pattern in the absence of corroborative clinical and histopathologic findings.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F. G. Blankenberg, R. C. Robbins, J. H. Stoot, P. W. Vriens, G. J. Berry, J. F. Tait, and H. W. Strauss Radionuclide Imaging of Acute Lung Transplant Rejection With Annexin V Chest, March 1, 2000; 117(3): 834 - 840. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]