clarifying the most used radiological terms in chest imaging,its meaning,differential diagnosis,and pathological correlation

1. Terms for Thoracic
Imaging ..Unifying the
language.
Part III
Dr/Ahmed Bahnassy
Consultant Radiologist –RMH.
MBCHB-MD-FRCR.

2. miliary pattern
profuse tiny,
discrete, rounded
pulmonary
opacities (3 mm in
diameter)
that are generally
uniform in size
and diffusely
distributed
throughout the
lungs

3. reticular pattern
a reticular pattern is
a collection
of innumerable
small linear
opacities that, by
summation, produce
an appearance
resembling a net.

4. reticulonodular pattern
A combined
reticular and nodular
pattern, the
reticulonodular pattern is
usually the result
of the summation of
points of intersection
of innumerable lines,
creating
the effect on chest
radiographs of
superimposed
micronodules

5. nodule
The chest
radiographic
appearance of a
nodule is
a rounded
opacity, well or
poorly defined,
measuring up to
3 cm in diameter

6. crazy-paving pattern
This pattern appears
as thickened
interlobular septa and
intralobular
lines superimposed on
a background of
ground-glass opacity ,
resembling irregularly
shaped paving stones.
DD:Alveolar
proteinosis..what
else ?

7. consolidation
Consolidation refers
to
An exudate or other
product of disease
that replaces
alveolar air,
rendering the lung
solid (as in infective
pneumonia).