Introduction
Congenital pulmonary airway malformations (CPAM), characterized by an abnormal airway pattern, are developmental malformations of the lower respiratory tract that occur during lung branching morphogenesis. CPAM has the potential to cause cystic and/or adenomatous pulmonary areas. Despite being a rare condition with a prevalence of only 0.81/10,000 fetuses, CPAM is considered to be the most common congenital lung abnormality, being responsible for 30–40% of all malformations (1). The pathogenesis and exact cellular mechanisms behind CPAM are not fully understood yet; however, many potential genes were suspected to play a part in the formation of lung cysts (2). Nowadays, with the advance of prenatal ultrasound (90% sensitivity and 77% specificity for CPAM), CPAM is often diagnosed antenatally, by detecting an echogenic mass within the fetal lungs usually in the second trimester of gestation (21–24 weeks), then followed up routinely during the course of pregnancy (1). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) also plays an important diagnostic role complementary to ultrasound since it is able to define the type and extent of these lung lesions, thus guiding prenatal intervention and postnatal care (2). CPAM can be classified into five different types, each one of them vary in appearance and originate from a different area in the lung (3). Prognosis, and therefore, management usually depends on the classification and presence of symptoms and any other fetal anomalies (3). We present a symptomatic case of CPAM with the associated clinical, radiological and pathological details. The work has been reported in line with the SCARE criteria (4).