Pulmonary nodules in children

Introduction: Pulmonary nodules detected by thoracic imaging in children can be seen as a systemic disease finding or incidentally. Aims: To evaluate children referred to pediatric pulmonology department with pulmonary nodules Methods: Gender, age at admission, symptom, pulmonary function tests, radiologic results, diameters and locations of nodules of all children with pulmonary nodules were analyzed. Results: The mean age of all 45 patients was 12.3±3.8 years and 62.2% were female. The mean follow-up duration was 12.9±19.9 months. 26 (57.8%) patients had symptoms at admission and 46.2% of symptoms were cough. 24 (53.3%) patients had comorbid diseases, 7 (29.2%) had rheumatological, and others had gastroenterological, nephrological, dermatological and cardiological diseases. Chest radiographs were mostly normal (57.1%), while the most common finding on thoracic CT was nodule with fibrotic thickening (87.5%). The mean diameter of nodule was 3.2±2.6 mm. Solitary nodule was found in 31 (68.9%) patients and 21 of them had symptoms at admission. Presence of symptoms was more common in patients with solitary nodules than those without (p=0.045). Nodules were most common in the lower lobes of the lungs (77.1%) and 50.0% of the nodules were only in the right lung. 25 (55.6%) patients had pulmonary function tests and mean FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC, and MEF25–75 values were 100.4±12.1%, 96.8±13.2%, 103.8±9.6, and 98.9±28.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference between diameter and location of nodules and gender (p>0.05). The diameter and location of nodules were not correlated with age at admission and symptoms. Conclusions: Nonspecific pulmonary nodules in children can be seen and may have no effect on pulmonary function test of children.