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Updated: May 16, 2026

Lung CT Segmentation to Identify Consolidations and Ground Glass Areas for Quantitative Assesment of SARS-CoV Pneumonia
Published on: December 19, 2020
Incidental pneumoparotid detected on computed tomography: Should it raise an alarm?
Chirag Kamal Ahuja1, Mukesh Kumar Yadav, Vivek Gupta
1Department of Radiodiagnosis, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. chiragkahuja@rediffmail.com
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.
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