The role of high-resolution chest CT in the diagnosis of neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia of infancy – A rare form of pediatric interstitial lung disease

Abstract

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is rare in infancy or early childhood. Differentiating between the different types of ILD is important for reasons of treatment, monitoring of clinical course and prognosis. We present a case of a 5-month old female with tachypnea and hypoxemia. The clinical suspicion of neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia of infancy (NEHI) was confirmed by high-resolution chest CT and subsequent lung biopsy. We conclude that high-resolution chest CT has characteristics findings that can be used as a non-invasive test to support the clinical diagnosis of neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia of infancy.

Keywords

• Interstitial lung disease
• Neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia of infancy
• High-resolution chest CT