Occupational Lung Diseases Beate Rehbock 18.1 Introduction Occupational or work-related disease is the term used to describe health disorders fully or partially attributable to work activity. These are usually caused…

Diagnostic Imaging of the Chest in Intensive Care Medicine 16.1 Indications for Chest Radiography in Intensive Care Medicine The value of daily routine chest radiography for each patient in an…

Persistent or Migratory Pulmonary Infiltrates Pulmonary infiltrates are very commonly detected in clinical practice. On chest radiography, they are usually interpreted as pneumonia, when this is consistent with the clinical…

Pleural Diseases 11.1 Pneumothorax Note A pneumothorax is a pathologic accumulation of air in the pleural space which, because of the intrinsic elasticity of the lung, leads to separation of…

Pulmonary Nodules 21.1 Solitary Nodule By definition, a pulmonary nodule is a rounded opacity in the lung parenchyma measuring up to 3 cm. It is surrounded by aerated lung parenchyma…

Vascular Diseases 14.1 Diseases of the Pulmonary Arteries 14.1.1 Acute Pulmonary Embolism Venous thromboembolism is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases. It comprises two clinical disease entities: deep vein…

Diseases of the Chest Wall and Diaphragm 13.1 Infection Chest wall infections originate in place or are transmitted from the intrathoracic space. Bacterial inflammation is usually accompanied by pain and…

Diagnostic Schema for Typical Computed Tomography Findings of Diffuse Pulmonary Diseases As in an identification guide, differential diagnosis of diffuse parenchymal lung diseases is presented on the basis of typical…

Mediastinal Diseases 12.1 Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy Note Mediastinal lymphadenopathy is present if the short diameter of the lymph node on sectional imaging is more than 10 mm. The long-axis diameter of…

Chest Trauma In European countries, blunt chest trauma is significantly more common than penetrating chest trauma (e.g., gunshot or stab wounds). Two-thirds of all blunt chest injuries are caused by…