High-resolution Computed Tomography and chest radiography findings in clinically suspected interstitial lung diseases

Abstract

Background: Interstitial lung diseases are a diverse group of diseases that predominantly affect the lung interstitium and share similar clinical and radiological manifestations. Objective:to compare conventional chest radiography and HRCT in the diagnosis of interstitial lung disease with clinical correlation. Materials and Methods:The present study included 53 patients. After a detailed clinical work up, all the patients underwent both conventional chest radiography and HRCT. The images were evaluated and the findings compared between chest radiography and HRCT. Results: The main result of the study was that HRCT was able to detect more abnormalities than conventional chest radiogram in the diagnosis of interstitial lung diseases. The differences between the two modalities were found to be statistically significant in certain findings. Conclusion- HRCT appears to be a better modality of investigation than conventional chest radiography in the diagnosis of interstitial lung diseases. HRCT was able to detect abnormalities even in cases when the chest radiogram was normal, thereby emphasizing the inherent lack of sensitivity of chest radiography.