Disorders of the small airways: high-resolution computed tomographic features

Area of Science:

• Pulmonary Medicine
• Radiology
• Pathology

Background:

• Small-airway diseases, or bronchiolitis, encompass various conditions affecting lung bronchioles.
• These diseases can lead to reversible or irreversible lung abnormalities.
• Diagnosis has been significantly advanced by high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT).

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the clinical, pathological, and HRCT features of common small-airway diseases.
• To highlight the diagnostic utility of HRCT in identifying different types of bronchiolitis.
• To correlate imaging findings with disease characteristics.

Main Methods:

• Review of clinical presentations and pathological findings in small-airway diseases.
• Analysis of characteristic HRCT findings for different bronchiolitis categories.
• Correlation of HRCT patterns with specific disease entities.

Main Results:

• Obliterative bronchiolitis shows mosaic perfusion patterns on HRCT.
• Cellular bronchiolitis is identified by centrilobular nodules and tree-in-bud opacities.
• Respiratory bronchiolitis and RB-ILD present with ground-glass attenuation and poorly defined nodules.

Conclusions:

• HRCT is a crucial tool for diagnosing small-airway diseases.
• Distinct HRCT patterns aid in differentiating between obliterative, cellular, and respiratory bronchiolitis.
• Understanding these HRCT findings improves diagnostic accuracy and patient management.