Unilateral Giant Bullae: Pulmonary Placental Transmogrification Should Be Kept in Mind: Case Reports

Abstract

Placental transmogrification is a peculiar clinical entity of the lung of uncertain etiology. We report 2 cases of pulmonary placental transmogrification in 2 patients of different nationalities. Both of them had no history of smoking or chronic lung disease. The main presentations were dyspnea and chest pain. Radiologic studies showed a unilateral giant bulla in both patients; additional pneumothorax was present in only 1patient. They underwent surgical bullectomy. Histopathologic studies revealed the presence of intracystic placenta-like villous structures and a diagnosis of placental transmogrification was made. Placental transmogrification should be considered in cases of unilateral bullae.

Pulmonary placental transmogrification: a difficult pattern in differential diagnosis of pulmonary hamartomas from a tertiary care hospital in Turkey

“…This increase in the epithelial clefting may explain the papillary pattern of PT. Although it was frequently noted in PT cases associated with bullous emphysema in the literature [12,16,17], any lymphatic or vascular channel formation and dilation were not observed in our sections. Therefore, the origin and pathogenesis of PT associated with the pulmonary hamartomas may differ from PT associated with bullous emphysema [9,10].…”

“…Until now, approximately 50 reported cases of pulmonary PT in the English literature [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. To our best knowledge, there is no study reporting that PT was histopathologically diagnosed in a hamartoma, and presented more than one case in a single center.…”