[Evaluation of CT images in pulmonary tuberculosis]

Characteristics of CT images of 40 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were compared with those of chest radiograms of the same patients, and the clinical usefulness of CT was evaluated. CT findings in pulmonary tuberculosis could be classified as follows. (1) centrilobular shadow, (2) lobular shadow, (3) multilobular shadow, (4) small nodular shadow, (5) pneumonic shadow, (6) cavitary shadow, (7) shadow showing, broncho-vascular dilatation. It was concluded that CT could express far more precisely the location, extension and stage of the tuberculous lesions and could give more informations on the clinical and pathological natures of the lesions than ordinary chest radiograms. Further, CT was superior for the radiological analysis of the detail of the lesions and their distributions.