From the archives of the AFIP: Lung disease in premature neonates: radiologic-pathologic correlation.

Pulmonary disease is the most important cause of morbidity in preterm neonates, whose lungs are often physiologically and morphologically immature. Surfactant deficiency in immature lungs triggers a cascade of alveolar instability and collapse, capillary leak edema, and hyaline membrane formation. The term respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) has come to represent the clinical expression of surfactant deficiency and its nonspecific histologic counterpart, hyaline membrane disease.

Adrenocortical neoplasms in children: radiologic-pathologic correlation.

Primary neoplasms of the adrenal cortex are rare in children and differ significantly in epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and biologic features from their counterparts in adults. In children, the inclusive term adrenocortical neoplasm is applied because adrenal adenoma and adrenal carcinoma may be difficult to distinguish histopathologically. Pediatric adrenocortical neoplasms typically occur before 5 years of age, affect young girls more commonly than boys, and are associated with hemihypertrophy and Beckwith-Wiedemann and Li-Fraumeni syndromes.

Nephrogenic rests, nephroblastomatosis, and associated lesions of the kidney.

The fetal kidney is formed by the development of nephrons from fetal metanephric blastema surrounding the ureteric bud. The fetal renal tissue matures into normal renal parenchyma during gestation, but, occasionally, fetal tissue persists into infancy as microscopic foci called nephrogenic rests. Nephrogenic rests are found in approximately 1% of infant kidneys at autopsy.

Lung disease in premature neonates: impact of new treatments and technologies.

Advances in perinatal medicine and neonatology have dramatically changed clinical outcomes for premature neonates and have ushered in a new era of radiological complexity. "Portable" chest radiographs continue to be the mainstay in diagnostic imaging of fragile newborns, but radiologists may be confronted with new and unexpected radiological expressions of once-familiar disease processes. Familiarity with the radiological impact of emerging treatments in premature neonates is essential for accurate film interpretation.