Bacterial pneumonia following bone marrow transplantation: HRCT findings.
OBJECTIVE
To describe HRCT findings in patients with bacterial pneumonia following bone marrow transplantation (BMT).


METHODS
This was a retrospective study involving 30 patients diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia in whom HRCT of the chest was performed within 24 h after the onset of symptoms and the diagnosis was confirmed, based on a positive culture of sputum or bronchial aspirate, together with a positive pleural fluid or blood culture, within one week after symptom onset. There were 20 male patients and 10 female patients. The median age was 21 years (range, 1-41 years). The BMT had been performed for the treatment of the following: chronic myeloid leukemia, in 14 cases; severe aplastic anemia, in 6; acute myeloid leukemia, in 4; Fanconi's anemia, in 3; and acute lymphocytic leukemia, in 3. Two radiologists analyzed the HRCT scans and reached their final decisions by consensus.


RESULTS
The most common HRCT findings were air-space consolidation (in 60%), small centrilobular nodules (in 50%), ground-glass opacities (in 40%), bronchial wall thickening (in 20%), large nodules (in 20%), pleural lesions (in 16.7%) and tree-in-bud opacities (in 10%). The pulmonary lesions were distributed in the central and peripheral areas in 15 patients, whereas they were exclusively peripheral in 11. Lesions were located in the lower and middle lobes of the lung in 22 and 20 patients, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The most common HRCT findings in our patient sample were air-space consolidation, small centrilobular nodules and ground-glass opacities, most often in the central and peripheral regions of the middle and lower lung zones.
Coelho
Luiz Otávio de Mattos
LO
Clínica Diagnóstico Avançado Por Imagem, Curitiba, Brazil.
Gasparetto
Taísa Davaus
TD
Escuissato
Dante Luiz
DL
Marchiori
Edson
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D018410:Pneumonia, Bacterial / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D055815:Young Adult