"Infiltration" is a term that's not commonly encountered with respect to the CT scans. If folks do use this term, it's typically on chest x-rays when they see a nonspecific lung opacity. Since CT imaging usually affords us the capability to be more specific in characterizing a lung opacity, the need to use a "catch-all" nonspecific term like "infiltration" is much less. Many subspecialist chest radiologists - myself included - discourage the use of the term "infiltration" altogether - not be cause it's nonspecific, but because it means different things to different people and is therefore ambiguous in its meaning. For some folks, an "infiltration" could represent atelectasis, infection, non-infectious inflammation, hemorrhage, neoplasm, or interstitial fibrosis in the lung, while for other folks it might represent a subset of these items, and for some it might just mean "probably pneumonia". Since we strive to avoid miscommunication that may affect clinical management, a term like "opacity" is favored since it tends to have a more consistent interpretation by all parties.
Hello nice talk, I have 1 question: what do you think about distinguishing atelectasis versus consolidation(alveolar filing) by the degree of enhancement on CT with contrast?
I really like how you simplify the concepts with diagrams 👍
Great analogies in this talk!
thanks for the information
Thank you very much! Could you please tell me if the term "infiltration" is used when describing CT scans?
"Infiltration" is a term that's not commonly encountered with respect to the CT scans. If folks do use this term, it's typically on chest x-rays when they see a nonspecific lung opacity. Since CT imaging usually affords us the capability to be more specific in characterizing a lung opacity, the need to use a "catch-all" nonspecific term like "infiltration" is much less.
Many subspecialist chest radiologists - myself included - discourage the use of the term "infiltration" altogether - not be cause it's nonspecific, but because it means different things to different people and is therefore ambiguous in its meaning. For some folks, an "infiltration" could represent atelectasis, infection, non-infectious inflammation, hemorrhage, neoplasm, or interstitial fibrosis in the lung, while for other folks it might represent a subset of these items, and for some it might just mean "probably pneumonia".
Since we strive to avoid miscommunication that may affect clinical management, a term like "opacity" is favored since it tends to have a more consistent interpretation by all parties.
Hello nice talk, I have 1 question: what do you think about distinguishing atelectasis versus consolidation(alveolar filing) by the degree of enhancement on CT with contrast?
Thanks
A useful feature, as atelectasis enhances avidly and consolidation less so, and often heterogeneously!