title: [CT images in differentiating tuberculous nodules from lung cancers with diameters less than 2 cm].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find out the CT characteristics of tuberculous nodules and lung cancers with diameters less than 2 cm, and to evaluate their value in differentiating the two diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  The CT images in thirty patients with tuberculous nodules and forty lung cancer patients with lesions less than 2 cm in diameter were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Smooth or clear edge, non-lobulation, small cavity, calcification, pleural thicking and adhesion, satellitic nidus and perifocal inflammation were found predominant in tuberculous nodules with short-term dynamic changes in shapes, while shaggy border, shallow lobulation, vacuolus sign, air-bronchogram and typical pleural indentation were predominant in lung cancers without dynamic changes in shapes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thin-slice CT scanning can provide useful images, which by short-term observations are important for differentiating these diseases.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Tuberculosis & Thoracic Tumour Institute, Beijing 101149.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D000328:Adult; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D003074:Solitary Pulmonary Nodule / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*