Lung tissue attenuation pattern in the chest computer tomography: pathogenesis, clinical role, and differential diagnosis

Chest computed tomography (CT) helps better understanding clinical and pathological features of respiratory diseases. However, interpretation of CT images is difficult without information on clinical course of the disease in the given patient. Therefore, the definite diagnosis could be reached through cooperation of a clinician and a radiologist. This publication presents a lecture aimed at improving a physician's knowledge on interpretation of lung computed tomography (CT) patterns including imaging, structure and extension of abnormal signs. This information is believed to help the clinician to diagnose and differentiate pulmonary diseases based both on CT syndromes and clinical signs. A particular attention is paid on lung tissue attenuation pattern as the most common chest CT abnormality that includes five key entities, such as ground glass opacity, mosaic attenuation, consolidation, atelectasis, and soft-tissue mass.

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