Conventional roentgen diagnosis of mediastinal lymphadenopathy. Review article (part one)

Although CT has significantly improved the imaging of space occupying mediastinal processes, it cannot be the first diagnostic step for reasons of cost, capacity and radiation exposure. Therefore the conventional chest examination with biplane films, film tomography and esophagogram continues to be the basic roentgen procedure. The basis of the conventional studies is the analysis of the pleuro-mediastinal interfaces which represent the lateral mediastinal borders. This paper describes the roentgen-morphologic aspects of enlarged lymph nodes in the mediastinal compartments as far as they can be detected with conventional studies. The differential diagnoses are discussed and recognition of early and discrete lesions is particularly emphasized.