Onkológia 2/2006

POTENTIAL OF IMAGING TECHNIQUES IN DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF SOLITARY LUNG LESIONS

The solitary pulmonary nodule is a common radiological abnormality that is often detected incidentally. Although most solitary pulmonary nodules have benign causes, many represent stage I lung cancer and must be distinguished from benign nodules in an expeditious and cost-effective manner. chest radiograph in frontal projection is the initial and common examination in diagnosis of chest diseases. computed tomography (cT) (particularly thin-section cT-HrcT) is considered the method of choice for imaging pulmonary nodules, to describe the size and number of lesions and possible infiltration of adjacent structures. cT has the highest sensitivity of all imaging methods for detection of pulmonary nodules, but its specificity is limited. for further evaluation to exclude malignancy can be useful positron emission tomography, transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy.

Keywords: computed tomography, pulmonary nodule, differential diagnosis.