MATERIALS AND METHODS
We conducted a retrospective analysis of the medical records of 66 patients with prenatally diagnosed CPAM delivered at Severance Children’s Hospital between January 2005 and July 2017. The histopathological types of CPAM have traditionally been based on the Stocker classification [
5]. For newborns with prenatally diagnosed CPAM, postnatal chest radiography, lung ultrasonography, and/or chest computed tomography (CT) were performed. The patients’ respiratory symptoms at birth and during infancy, history of surgery, surgical methods and outcomes, and postoperative pathological findings were reviewed. We also analyzed the long-term follow-up data of patients with CPAM at the department of pediatrics and thoracic surgery.
The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (4-2019-0137). The requirement for informed consent was waived because of the retrospective nature of the study and because the analysis used anonymous clinical data. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows/Macintosh, version 23.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Noncontinuous variables between the two groups were compared using the chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test, and the outcomes were represented as percentages. Continuous variables between the two groups were compared using the two-sample T-test or Mann-Whitney U-test, and the outcomes were represented as mean±standard deviations. All outcomes with P-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant.
DISCUSSION
Herein, we have reported our experience with CPAM over 12 years at a tertiary center. A strength of this study is that we compared imaging tools and attempted to identify various potential predictive factors associated with the occurrence of respiratory symptoms at birth and during infancy, which are essential for postnatal management. Since the diagnosis and management of CPAM remain controversial, by reviewing many patients over a long term, we aimed to provide comprehensive clinical data on CPAM that could lead to its proper management.
CPAM generally occurs in the unilateral form, but exhibits higher incidence on the right side [
6]. It may be accompanied by excessive amniotic fluid, nonimmune fetal hydrops, ascites, and mediastinal shift, as well as other structural anomalies. However, CPAM is not associated with chromosomal abnormalities [
7]. In our study, the frequency of CPAM was identical between the left and right lungs. Polyhydramnios was observed; however, it was not significantly correlated with the clinical outcome. No patients had chromosomal abnormalities. The histopathological types of CPAM have traditionally been based on the Stocker classification [
5]. This classification was based on the histological and morphological findings of lung lesions obtained via surgery. The original classification initially included three types of CPAM (types 1, 2, and 3), and types 0 and 4 were added later [
5,
8]. Type 1 is the most common type. However, in this study, type 2 accounted for the highest proportion (11/21, 52.4%), and no patient had type 0 or 4.
The diagnosis of CPAM requires a multidisciplinary approach involving obstetricians, radiologists, pediatricians, surgeons, and pathologists [
9]. As ultrasonography technology has developed, the sensitivity of both prenatal and postnatal diagnosis of CPAM has been increasing [
10]. One study reported that the prenatal diagnosis rate of CPAM was as high as 85.7% over 8 years of retrospective assessment [
11]. Although the sensitivity and specificity of prenatal magnetic resonance imaging is as high as 95%, prenatal ultrasonography is the most commonly used diagnostic method [
12]. Lesions may grow until 25 to 28 weeks of gestation, but may partially regress during the third trimester of pregnancy [
13]. However, the regression of lesions observed under prenatal ultrasonography may not result in complete loss of the lesion [
14]. In this study, although 15 patients had regression of their lesions, 13 of them displayed lesions after birth. Thus, even if the lesion regresses during prenatal screening, postnatal imaging is essential for the accurate diagnosis of CPAM. In a previous study assessing 26 patients with prenatally diagnosed CPAM, chest CT was highly sensitive and showed a good positive predictive value that was consistent with our results [
15]. Prenatal ultrasonography, postnatal chest radiography, or lung ultrasonography alone is not adequately reliable to diagnose CPAM or its complete regression [
16]. We suggest chest CT for confirming the diagnosis of CPAM, considering its high sensitivity and positive predictive value.
Respiratory symptoms observed immediately after birth in patients with prenatally diagnosed CPAM are extremely diverse, and may necessitate mechanical ventilation or immediate surgical intervention. Identifying the risk factors for respiratory symptoms allows the medical staff to provide detailed and precise consultation to the caregivers, as well as adequate treatment to the patients as early as possible. Moreover, such infants should preferably be delivered at medical centers with neonatal intensive care units. A previous study suggested that a high CPAM to volume ratio (CVR), excessive amniotic fluid, and the presence of ascites are good prognostic factors for respiratory symptoms [
14]. More specifically, CVR ≥1.6 was reported to increase the risk of fetal hydrops [
17]. Much attention has been drawn to identifying prognostic factors predicting respiratory outcomes, such as contralateral lung volume per thoracic volume and the incidence of mediastinal shift [
18]. However, many studies failed to identify the prognostic factors predicting the respiratory symptoms in patients with CPAM [
19]. In this study, multiple factors were analyzed to identify the prognostic factors for respiratory symptoms at birth and during infancy. CVR was excluded because it was not routinely measured in all examinations. Instead, we compared the maximum size of the lesion by measuring its largest dimension reached during pregnancy. In our study, the Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes and mediastinal shift on chest radiography were significantly associated with respiratory symptoms at birth. Other factors were found not to be significant.
Different opinions exist regarding the treatment of CPAM. For prenatal treatment, thoracoamniotic shunt or multiple courses of antenatal betamethasone for high-risk fetal CPAM are considered effective [
20,
21]. In our study, no patients had received prenatal intervention. Moreover, the standard for postnatal treatment has not yet been established. If the patient is symptomatic, surgical treatment is recommended [
20]. The symptoms include infection, pulmonary hemorrhage, pneumothorax, respiratory difficulty, and malignant transformation. Pneumonectomy is the most commonly used surgical treatment for patients with CPAM, and it has a high success rate [
11,
22]. A previous study that assessed 1,120 infants demonstrated that the thoracoscopic approach induced fewer complications and resulted in shorter hospitalization [
23]. In neonates, thoracoscopic intervention may be difficult because of the limited operative space within their small bodies [
24]. However, minimal-access surgery is becoming widespread, and recently published series have reported increased utilization of VATS from 32.2% in 2008 to 48.2% in 2014 [
23]. In our study, 15 patients (68%) underwent VATS, with a high success rate; therefore, we confirm that thoracoscopic surgery can be performed both safely and effectively.
There is an on-going debate about surgical interventions performed in asymptomatic newborn patients. The risk of CPAM lesions becoming symptomatic in the first 5 years is less than 5% [
4]. However, even for asymptomatic patients, the possibility of repeated infection and malignant transformation are the reasons for pneumonectomy, which may outweigh the benefits of conservative management. CPAM can occasionally be a cystic malformation, and it may be a pleuropulmonary blastoma induced by DICER1 mutation, albeit rarely (with an estimated incidence of 1 in 300,000) [
20,
25]. During follow-up, as infants and children are inevitably and repeatedly exposed to radiation from radiological studies, the European Academic Society suggests that only physical examination is required for lesions that are asymptomatic and stable until the patient becomes an adult [
26]. However, there are concerns suggesting that in the absence of surgical resection, patients and families may experience continuous and unnecessary stress throughout the long-term follow-up process [
20]. A previous study reported that approximately 25% of asymptomatic patients with CPAM eventually develop symptoms at an average age of 6 to 7 months, which is different from our findings (2.8±2.2 months) [
19]. Our study was performed at a tertiary center to which patients with high-risk CPAM are referred and where a high proportion of respiratory symptoms are seen at birth; these factors could have accounted for the shorter average onset time of symptoms observed in our study than in other studies. Very few previous studies performed long-term follow-ups in pediatric patients who underwent early surgical treatment. At our center, the mean follow-up duration of the 21 patients who underwent surgery was 46.6 months.
A limitation of this study is that it was performed retrospectively, and different obstetric specialists were involved in the prenatal ultrasound examination. Furthermore, although our center aimed to apply an identical treatment protocol for all patients, different thoracic surgeons were involved in the treatment of patients and the treatment period varied according to the severity of the patients’ symptoms. Despite these limitations, this study provides meaningful experiences because patients with prenatally diagnosed CPAM underwent long-term follow-ups and were treated at a single tertiary center.
Overall, this study provides comprehensive clinical data on prenatal and postnatal clinical characteristics, diagnostic imaging, respiratory symptoms, treatment, and long-term follow-up of infants with prenatally diagnosed CPAM at a single tertiary center. Prenatal and postnatal ultrasonography or chest radiography alone provided unreliable diagnostic accuracy. They showed lower sensitivity and positive predictive value in the diagnosis of CPAM than did chest CT (with a sensitivity of 100% and positive predictive value of 90%). In case of unclear or inconsistent findings on ultrasonography or radiography, chest CT can be a valuable diagnostic tool for confirmation. Low Apgar scores and mediastinal shift on radiography can be predictive factors for respiratory symptoms at birth. However, symptoms during infancy were not associated with prenatal and postnatal factors. Therefore, chest CT combined with periodic monitoring of clinical symptoms is important for the proper diagnosis and management of patients with prenatally diagnosed CPAM and to guide appropriate timing of surgery.