Computerized tomography pleurography: a new method for detecting minor pleural lesion.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the ability of CT pleurography (CTP) in detecting minor pleural lesions in patients with pleural effusion and to assess its value in distinguishing malignant from benign pleural lesions.


METHODS
A prospective study of 50 patients with pleural effusion was conducted using conventional CT and CTP. CT scan was run after injecting an appropriate amount of contrast medium into the pleural cavity.


RESULTS
In 24 patients, all lesions detected by conventional CT were demonstrated by CTP. In 13 of 24 patients, CT pleurography detected additional lesions. In 20 of 26 patients with negative findings on conventional CT, CTP was capable of demonstrating the presence of pleural lesions. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of detecting pleural lesions were 25%, 100% and 30% for conventional CT, 86%, 100% and 87% for CTP, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
CTP is superior to conventional CT in detecting and for the differential diagnosis benign and malignant pleural lesions.
Gong
R
R
Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute, Jinan 250021, China.
Wu
L
L
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010994:Pleura / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D010996:Pleural Effusion / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed