Solitary lung inflammatory nodule:CT findings

Objective:To study CT findings of solitary lung inflammatory nodule and to improve CT diagnostic accuracy.Methods:CT findings of 60 cases with solitary lung inflammatory nodules were analyzed. Twenty-seven cases were treated with antibiotics, fifteen cases were diagnosed by the percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsy, eighteen cases were treated with surgery.Results:①Location,60% in lower lobe,23.3% in upper lobe, 10% in middle lobe.② CT findings:Irregular nodule (53.3%),spherical nodule or nodule similar to sphere (46.7%);nodule with blurred margin(45%),part of margin well-defined(16.7%),nodule with homogeneous density (58.3%),nodule with heterogeneous density(41.7%);nodule with widely plueral conglutination (50%),nodule with striped or linear plueral conglutination (41.7%), nodule without plueral reaction (38.3%).③ Dynamic change:among the cases with the treatment with antibiotics, nodules were resolved in 1～3 weeks (15 cases), nodules were resolved after one month(12 cases).5HZConclusion:The CT findings of irregular nodule with blurred margin, long axis consistent with lung segment and with widely plueral conglutination play an important role in diagnosis of solitary lung inflammatory nodule,nodule with well-defined margin should be considered to be inflammatory pseudotumor. The combining analyses of various imaging findings is very helpful to diagnosis, at the same cross-section scan, the size of the nodule at lung window is smaller than at mediastinal window is in favor of solitary inflammatory lung nodule.