background children's interstitial lung diseases (chilD) cover many rare entities, frequently not diagnosed or studied in detail. there is a great need for specialised advice and for internationally agreed subclassification of entities collected in a register. Our objective was to implement an international management platform with independent multidisciplinary review of cases at presentation for long-term follow-up and to test if this would allow for more accurate diagnosis. also, quality and reproducibility of a diagnostic subclassification system were assessed using a collection of 25 complex chilD cases. Methods a web-based chilD management platform with a registry and biobank was successfully designed and implemented. results Over a 3-year period, 575 patients were included for observation spanning a wide spectrum of chilD. in 346 patients, multidisciplinary reviews were completed by teams at five international sites (Munich 51%, london 12%, Hannover 31%, ankara 1% and Paris 5%). in 13%, the diagnosis reached by the referring team was not confirmed by peer review. among these, the diagnosis initially given was wrong (27%), imprecise (50%) or significant information was added (23%). the ability of nine expert clinicians to subcategorise the final diagnosis into the chilD-eU register classification had an overall exact inter-rater agreement of 59% on first assessment and after training, 64%. Only 10% of the 'wrong' answers resulted in allocation to an incorrect category. Subcategorisation proved useful but training is needed for optimal implementation. Conclusions We have shown that chilD-eU has generated a platform to help the clinical assessment of chilD. Trial registration number results, nct02852928.

BackgroundAim of this study was to verify a systematic and practical categorization system that allows dynamic classification of pediatric DPLD irrespective of completeness of patient data.MethodsThe study was based on 2322 children submitted to the kids-lung-register between 1997 and 2012. Of these children 791 were assigned to 12 DPLD categories, more than 2/3 belonged to categories manifesting primarily in infancy. The work-flow of the pediatric DPLD categorization system included (i) the generation of a final working diagnosis, decision on the presence or absence of (ii) DPLD and (iii) a systemic or lung only condition, and (iv) the allocation to a category and subcategory. The validity and inter-observer dependency of this workflow was re-tested using a systematic sample of 100 cases.ResultsTwo blinded raters allocated more than 80 % of the re-categorized cases identically. Non-identical allocation was due to lack of appreciation of all available details, insufficient knowledge of the classification rules by the raters, incomplete patient data, and shortcomings of the classification system itself.ConclusionsThis study provides a suitable workflow and hand-on rules for the categorization of pediatric DPLD. Potential pitfalls were identified and a foundation was laid for the development of consensus-based, international categorization guidelines.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13023-015-0339-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundThe majority of cases with severe pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) are caused by auto-antibodies against GM-CSF. A multitude of genetic and exogenous causes are responsible for few other cases. Goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of GATA2 deficiency in children and adults with PAP and hematologic disorders.MethodsOf 21 patients with GM-CSF-autoantibody negative PAP, 13 had no other organ involvement and 8 had some form of hematologic disorder. The latter were sequenced for GATA2.ResultsAge at start of PAP ranged from 0.3 to 64 years, 4 patients were children. In half of the subjects GATA2-sequence variations were found, two of which were considered disease causing. Those two patients had the typical phenotype of GATA2 deficiency, one of whom additionally showed a previously undescribed feature – a cholesterol pneumonia. Hematologic disorders included chronic myeloic leukemia, juvenile myelo-monocytic leukemia, lymphoblastic leukemia, sideroblastic anemia and two cases of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). A 4 year old child with MDS and DiGeorge Syndrome Type 2 was rescued with repetitive whole lung lavages and her PAP was cured with heterologous stem cell transplant.ConclusionsIn children and adults with severe GM-CSF negative PAP a close cooperation between pneumologists and hemato-oncologists is needed to diagnose the underlying diseases, some of which are caused by mutations of transcription factor GATA2. Treatment with whole lung lavages as well as stem cell transplant may be successful.

PIG is associated with alveolar growth abnormalities and has to be considered in all newborns with unexplained respiratory distress. Apparent treatment benefit of glucocorticosteroids needs to be evaluated systematically.

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