Radiology Key

Background Lung cancer is the third most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. The most important risk factor for lung cancer is smoking,…

Congenital malformations of the pulmonary vessels include absence or interruption, abnormal sizes, origins, or courses, and abnormal connections of the pulmonary arteries or veins. These abnormalities commonly accompany other congenital…

Congenital lung disease remains a confusing topic owing to ever-changing histopathologic understanding of the various entities and frequent updates to antiquated clinical and pathologic classification schemes. Past classifications have been…

Diseases that cause a decrease in lung density result in increased radiolucency (hyperlucency) on chest radiography and decreased attenuation on computed tomography (CT). Decreased lung density may result from obstructive…

Many diseases involve predominantly or exclusively the pulmonary interstitium. The differential diagnosis of the various entities on the chest radiograph and computed tomography (CT) is based on the pattern and…

Solitary Lung Nodule or Mass A pulmonary nodule is defined as any pulmonary lesion that is well-defined, discrete, approximately circular, and 3 cm or less in diameter. The term mass is…

Atelectasis is defined as less than normal inflation of all or part of the lung with a corresponding diminution in lung volume. Although the term collapse is often used synonymously…

Airspace consolidation is defined as replacement of gas within the airspaces by fluid, protein, cells, or other material. Consolidation is characterized on radiographs and computed tomography (CT) by the presence…