Pulmonary Consolidation
October 21st, 2019
Overview
Look For
- Opacification obscuring pulmonary vessels
- Silhouette signs - obliteration of normally clear outlines between lung fields and adjacent structures
- Air bronchograms - tubular outlines of smaller airways
- No loss of lung volume
Significance
- Consolidation indicates filling of the alveoli and bronchioles in the lung with pus (pneumonia), fluid (pulmonary oedema), blood or neoplastic cells.
Causes of Pulmonary Consolidation
- Pneumonia - lobar pneumonia, bronchopneumonia, fungal pneumonia, viral pneumonitis
- Fluid - pulmonary oedema (cardiogenic / non-cardiogenic)
- Neoplasm - primary lung cancer, metastases, lymphoma
- Vascular - pulmonary haemorrhage, contusion or infarct; septic embolism
- Inflammation - systemic lupus erythematosus, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangitis, Goodpasture's syndrome, Henoch-Schonlein purpura
- Cryptogenic organising pneumonia
- Eosinophilic pneumonia
- Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis
- Aspiration pneumonitis
- Sarcoidosis
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------