›› 2014, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (3): 242-245.

• Original Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Clinical analysis of 21 cases of pediatric bridging bronchus 

ZHANG Shulan, ZHAO Deyu   

  1.  (Department of Pulmonology, Nanjing Children's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China)
  • Received:2013-08-25 Online:2014-03-15 Published:2014-03-15

Abstract:  Objective To explore the clinical diagnosis and treatment of pediatric bridging bronchus deformity and brid-ging bronchus with pulmonary artery sling. Methods The clinical data of the 21 cases of diagnosed bronchial bridge deformity and bronchial bridge with pulmonary artery sling, the imaging findings of all the echocardiography, MSCT chest scan, enhanced CT and reconstructive image were retrospectively analyzed. Results In 21 cases, 10 were diagnosed as bronchial bridge only, among which three cases had other types of congenital heart disease; 11 cases were diagnosed of pulmonary artery sling with pulmonary artery sling, among which 8 cases had other types of congenital heart disease; their average age of the 8 cases were all younger than 2 years old, except one case; most of them had the symptoms of recurrent respiratory tract infections and paroxysmal dyspnea. According to Wells, bronchial bridge was divided into type I and typeⅡ; 15 cases were type I, 6 cases were typeⅡ, 10 patients with bronchial bridge only were all type I, 5 cases of typeⅡwere associated with pulmonary artery sling. All of the 6 cases were diagnosed as typeⅡassociated with pulmonary artery sling. Conclusions Infants and young children with clinical recurrent respiratory tract infections should be considered the possibility of bronchus bridge deformity, and should be paid more attention to the possibility of pulmonary artery sling. MSCT plain chest scan, enhanced CT and airway reconstructive image are the important ways to diagnose the disease.