Weekly Chest CasesArchive of Old Cases

Case No : 1092 Date 2018-10-01

  • Courtesy of Junghoon Kim, Kyung Won Lee / Seoul National University Bundang Hospital
  • Age/Sex 54 / F
  • Chief ComplaintScreening
  • Figure 1
  • Figure 2
  • Figure 3
  • Figure 4
  • Figure 5

Diagnosis With Brief Discussion

Diagnosis
Placental Transmogrification
Radiologic Findings
Figs 1. Chest PA shows irregular opacity at medial side of right mid to lower lung fields.
Fig 2-3. chest CT scan shows about 4 cm irregular part-solid mass with cystic component in the RLL posterobasal segment.
Figs 4-5. There was no significant interval change on low-dose chest CT scan taken 6 months later.
Right lower lobectomy was done and placental mogrification was pathologically confirmed.
Brief Review
Placental transmogrification of the lung, or pulmonary placental transmogrification, is also referred to as placentoid bullous lesion. It is known to be a very rare disease with less than 30 adequately documented cases. Clinically, placental transmogrification usually occurs in men between 20 to 50 years old; however, our case was even a more rare case due to the occurrence in a female patient. It may be asymptomatic or perhaps associated with pneumothorax or chronic obstructive lung disease.
The etiology and pathogenesis still remain unclear. It may be congenital, but no placental transmogrification has been reported in children. Placental transmogrification is not only associated with cystic or emphysematous lung lesion, but also with pulmonary fibrochondromatoushamartomas and pulmonary lipomatosis. Thus, the radiologic presentation can be bullous change or pulmonary lung nodules.
Previous articles had classified the radiologic findings into 3 patterns. The most common manifestation is bullous emphysema pattern. Next, the disease is expressed on radiography with a mixed pattern of thin-walled cystic lesion and nodule. Rarely, the radiologic finding shows a solitary nodule pattern. The disease itself is a rare disease entity, and our case had even more unusual findings of both giant bulla and subsegmental consolidation patterns.
Radiologically, differential diagnosis of the lesion includes cystic or bullous lung disease, such as bullous emphysema, particularly giant bullous emphysema (vanishing lung syndrome), and solitary pulmonary lung nodules, such as hamartoma.
Bullous emphysema shows similar imaging characteristics to placental transmogrification. Placental transmogrification usually has a unilateral giant bullous change. However, bullous emphysema generally demonstrates a diffuse bilateral lung involvement. In addition, although bullous emphysema can have rapid progression of lung parenchyma destruction in drug abuse, acquired immune deficiency syndrome or autoimmune disease, it commonly affects old age with a history of smoking and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and develops over a long period of time. In particular, giant bullous emphysema is also referred to as primary bullous emphysema or vanishing lung syndrome, which is characterized by bulla occupying at least one third of the hemithorax. It may most closely resemble the image characteristics similar to placental transmogrification.
Other radiologic findings of placental transmogrification are emphysema with pulmonary nodules or solitary pulmonary nodule patterns. In rare cases, these solid pulmonary nodules contain air and fat. The radiologic differential diagnosis of the nodule includes pulmonary hamartoma. However, the image finding alone has limited value to differentiate the lesion from placental transmogrification. Therefore, making the diagnosis requires the confirmation of pathology.
In summary, the image finding of placental transmogrification presents unilateral large bullous emphysema with or without an associated nodule or consolidation. From a clinical standpoint, making an accurate preoperative diagnosis is difficult. Although it is an extremely rare disease, it must be ruled out in patients with unilateral bullous lesion who do not have high risk of bullous emphysema.
References
1. Hochhegger B, et al. Placental Transmogrification of the Lung. Lung2015;193.5:855–857.
2. KIM, J, et al. Placental transmogrification of the lung. Korean journal of radiology 2013;14.6:977–980.
3. Shapiro M, et al. Placental transmogrification of the lung presenting as emphysema and a lung mass. Ann ThoracSurg 2009;87:615–616.
Keywords
Lung, Neoplasm_benign,

No. of Applicants : 84

▶ Correct Answer : 6/84,  7.1%
  • - The University of Tokyo Hospital , Japan Akifumi Hagiwara
  • - MAGNUM DIAGNOSTICS - Goa INDIA , India PARESH K DESAI
  • - Chonbuk National University Hospital , Korea (South) WEON JANG
  • - University of Tsukuba Hospital , Japan SODAI HOSHIAI
  • - Hamamatsu University Hospital , Japan YUKI HAYASHI
  • - Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital , Korea (South) JONG EUN LEE
▶ Correct Answer as Differential Diagnosis : 13/84,  15.5%
  • - Saitama-Sekishinkai Hosptal , Japan MIHOKO YAMAZAKI
  • - Higashi-Ohmi General Medical Center , Japan AKITOSHI INOUE
  • - King Abdulaziz University Hospital , Saudi Arabia Amr M. Ajlan
  • - Vita Hospital , Brazil DIOGO LAGO PINHEIRO
  • - Other , Korea (South) SEONGSU KANG
  • - The Jikei university , Japan TAKU GOMI
  • - University of Tsukuba, Dept of Radiology , Japan MANABU MINAMI
  • - Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine , Japan YOSHIAKI OTA
  • - Teikyo University Hospital , Japan KAORU SUMIDA
  • - Ichinomiya Nishi Hospital , Japan Takao Kiguchi
  • - Diagnose.me (BV) / Royal Perth Hospital , Australia YURANGA WEERAKKODY
  • - the first affiliatited hospital of nanjing medical univercity , China HAI XU
  • - Seoul Veterans Hospital , Korea (South) HYUN JUNG YOON
  • Top
  • Back

Each Case of This Site Supplied by the Members of KSTR.
Copyright of the Images is in the KSTR and Original Supplier.
Current Editor : Sang Young Oh, M.D., Ph.D Email : sangyoung.oh@gmail.com

This website is optimized for IE 10 and above.