The Ewha Medical Journal
Ewha Womans University School of Medicine
Original Article

Findings of Computed Tomographu of Pleural Lesions : Difference between Malignant and Benign Lesions

Jeong Soo Suh

Copyright ⓒ 1997. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jul 24, 2015

Abstract

Objectives

To find out differential points between benign and malignant pleural disease.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed the CT scans of 33 patients(20 men and 13 women ; mean age, 56) with pleural diseases including 12 malignant diseases(lung cancer(n=10), metastasis(n=2)) and 21 benign diseases(tuberculous empyema(n=12), bacterial empyema(n=7), hemothorax related exudate(n=2)).

Results

In malignant diseases, irregular(n=3) or nodular(n=3), and mediastinal pleural thickening(n=6) were observed but extrapleural fat accumulation or pleural calcification were not.

In benign diseases, irregular pleural thickening was not observed in bacterial empyema but in tuberculous empyema(n=3) and hemothorax related exudate(n=1). Mediastinal pleural thickening and extrapleural fat accumulation were observed in tuberculous(n=5, 5) and bacterial(n=2, 2) empyema and hemothorax related exudate(n=1, 2) and pleura calcification was observed in tuberculous(n=3) and bacterial(n=2) empyema.

Conclusion

Findings of irregular or nodular pleural thickening were observed only in malignant disease with exception of tuberculous empyma and hemothorax related exudate. Extrapleural fat accumulation and pleural calcification were observed only in benign disease.

Keywords: Pleura CT; Pleura infection; Pleura neoplasm