Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
Introduction
This chapter will discuss lung disorders that present throughout the childhood years, including infancy and the perinatal period. Some structural abnormalities are now detected earlier with recent advances in prenatal ultrasound. Areas considered include congenital malformations and disease processes associated with the transition from an intrauterine to an extrauterine existence, particularly when this occurs preterm. Cystic fibrosis (CF) and other inheritable conditions that typically present first in the pediatric age range will also will be covered. The pediatric aspects of conditions such as infection and tumors are also included but entities typically encountered in adults that rarely affect children will only be cross-referenced.
Congenital malformations
Congenital malformations are morphological defects in part of an organ, a complete organ or a larger region of the body, due to an intrinsically abnormal developmental process. A morphological defect of the same structures due to the extrinsic breakdown of, or interference with, an originally normal developmental process is termed a disruption. These may be difficult to distinguish, especially if the disruption has occurred early in gestation. Some malformations are presumed multifactorial, due to interactions between genetic factors and environmental agents; others are purely environmental. It may be difficult to be sure where, in this etiological spectrum, some malformations should be placed. To understand defects in lung development it is essential to remember the embryology outlined in Chapter 1.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge-org.demo.remotlog.com is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.