Question about terms on CT reports. - 1257769

suegabriel
Posts:4

Are these four terms simply different ways of describing the same finding on CT or do they refer to different conditions?
Airspace opacities
Parenchymal opacities
Infiltrates
Fibrotic scarring

Thanks.

Forums

Dr West
Posts: 4735

The first 3 are really essentially synonymous, "infiltrates" perhaps implying a larger area than an "opacity", which may be quite small or large. Fibrotic scarring is a process that could lead to the appearance of an opacity, but that's a more specific explanation of an underlying cause (what you'd see at a microscopic level) vs. the first 3 terms, which describe the appearance of a characteristic on imaging like a chest CT.

-Dr. West