Abstract
An azygos lobe is a rare anatomic variant of the lung which may be misdiagnosed as other pathological conditions. There is a dearth of information on the clinical characteristics of children with azygos lobe. This study aims to summarize the clinical features of children with azygos lobe, which may be helpful to improve recognition and clinical care of those patients. Clinical findings of the children with imaging findings of azygos lobe were collected and analyzed. In this study, 50 children with azygos lobe were included. A total of 28% cases were found to have azygos lobe incidentally. The remaining 72% cases were diagnosed when they presented with respiratory symptoms including cough (36%), fever (34%), wheezing (18%), dyspnea (14%), and cyanosis (8%). Congenital heart disease, Down syndrome, and other respiratory malformations were also found in a small proportion of these patients. Only 7 (14%) patients suffered from azygos lobe infection and were clinically cured after reasonable anti-infective treatment. Compared with the non-infected group, no valuable risk factors were found to be related to azygos lobe infection. All children who had azygos lobe infections responded to appropriate antibiotics therapy. There was no evidence that an azygos lobe was associated with recurrent infections.Conclusion: The clinical characteristics of children with azygos lobe are nonspecific and diagnosis relies on chest imaging. Some congenital abnormalities may be complicated with azygos lobe. It is reasonable to keep watch over those patients without symptoms. What is Known: • An azygos lobe is a congenital variation of the lung. • Azygos lobe can mimic various pathological conditions leading to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment in adults, which presents challenges during thoracic surgical interventions. What is New: • Azygos lobe in children may be complicated with other congenital abnormalities. • There is no evidence that azygos lobe is associated with recurrent infections. • After appropriate anti-infective treatment, those children with azygos lobe infections could be clinically cured.
Highlights
An azygos lobe is a congenital variation of the lung
This study aimed to summarize the clinical characteristics and imaging manifestations of azygos lobe in children, which will be helpful for reasonable management and counseling of their families
Children with imaging findings of azygos lobe from West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University (Chengdu, China) between November 2008 and February 2019 were enrolled in the study
Summary
An azygos lobe is a congenital variation of the lung. It is present in 0.2–1.2% of the population. In order to prevent misdiagnosis and unnecessary interventions, an understanding of the clinical and imaging features of the azygos lobe is important. We describe a group of children with azygos lobe. An azygos lobe is a rare anatomic variant of the lung which may be misdiagnosed as other pathological conditions. This study aimed to summarize the clinical characteristics and imaging manifestations of azygos lobe in children, which will be helpful for reasonable management and counseling of their families. Children with imaging findings of azygos lobe from West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University (Chengdu, China) between November 2008 and February 2019 were enrolled in the study. Clinical and radiologic characteristics of these patients were collected and analyzed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
