Purpose
We aimed to retrospectively evaluate and compare pulmonary CT findings of patients with predominant centrilobular nodules or preferentially centrilobular disease with pathologic findings.
Methods and Materials
1. We retrospectively identified 648 patients who fulfilled each diagnosis criteria specific to each entity (Table 1) (7, 10-18) and with predominant centrilobular nodules or preferentiallycentrilobular disease, who had undergone chest HRCT scans between January 1996 and December 2005 at 3 institutions. Thirty-one HTLV-1 (Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1) carriers, 3 withMycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia, 8 with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Tb), 7 with Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex (MAC), 2 with diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB), 2 with follicularbronchiolitis (FB), and 9 with alveolar hemorrhage were excluded because of poor...
Results
Table-1: centrilobular nodules Disease tree-in-bud nodules ill-defined nodules HTLV-1* carrier 88.9 (%) 11.1 (%) Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia 84.6 7.7 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Tb) 73.1 25 Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) 59.5 29.7 Mycobacterium Kansasii 81.8 15.2 Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) 66.7 11.1 Diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB) 100 0 Follicular bronchiolitis (FB) 71.4 28.6 Diffuse aspiration bronchiolitis (DAB) 92.3 0 Subacute hypersensitivity pneumonitis 0 100 Metastatic calcification 0 100 Alveolar hemorrhage 5.9 55.9 RB-ILD** 0 100 HTLV-1*: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is an etiologic retrovirus of...
Conclusions
1. In summary, in patients with mainly tree-in-bud appearance the overwhelming likelihood is that the underlying cause was related to infection, excepting diffuse aspiration bronchiolitis (DAB) and diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB). 2. On the other hand, patients with mainly ill-defined centrilobular nodules essentially never have underlying infection as an etiology. 3. Moreover, bronchiectasis was also a manifestation of infection in the vast majority of cases. Bronchiectasis was usually only associated with diseases with tree-in-bud appearance. 4. Knowledge of the two centrilobular patterns is of proven worth...