Nuclear medicine communications
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Unilateral hyperlucent lung on chest radiograph is uncommon in children. It is often found incidentally and always refers to Swyer-James syndrome, with decrease in pulmonary vascularity and air trapping during expiration. However, it may occasionally mimic other serious lung diseases such as pulmonary hypoplasia/aplasia, defect of pulmonary artery, and other primary pulmonary disorders. In this study, we hypothesized that there would be characteristic patterns in pulmonary ventilation and perfusion scintigraphy (V/Q scan) in children with unilateral hyperlucency on chest film, which could play an important role in differential diagnosis of this disease group explicitly. ⋯ We chose a descriptive approach to the V/Q scan in children with unilateral hyperlucent lung on chest radiograph. This result enables us to promote the V/Q scan as a first-line tool in evaluating these patients and to avoid further unnecessary procedures.