title: Incidental pneumoparotid detected on computed tomography: Should it raise an alarm?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pneumoparotid is often seen in patients as a result of infection or following maneuvers that lead to increase in intraoral pressures. We describe a short series of 5 cases of incidental pneumoparotid, for the first time, detected during neck contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) examination.
  
  
  METHODS
  All neck CECT examinations that had been acquired over a 4-month period for indications other than pertaining to the parotid gland were retrospectively analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four hundred cases were reviewed. Five of 80 patients in whom CECT was acquired after the "puffed cheek" maneuver were detected to have incidental pneumoparotid. All remained clinically asymptomatic during the examination.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pneumoparotid may be an incidental finding in patients asked to blow air in a closed mouth during CT/magnetic resonance acquisition. An awareness of this benign finding would prevent sudden alarm of interpreting it as an anaerobic infection of the parotid in such patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiodiagnosis, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. chiragkahuja@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: Chirag Kamal
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Ahuja
authors.forename: Mukesh Kumar
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Yadav
authors.forename: Vivek
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Niranjan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Khandelwal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010305:Parotid Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*