AbstractBackground and Aim: Interstitial lung diseases encompass diffuse involvement of parenchymal tissue of lung. Before the use of computed tomography for diagnosis of diseases, radiography was the only existing imaging procedure available for diagnosis of interstitial lung diseases, which had substantial drawbacks when compared to the former. Present study was done with objectives to evaluate the role of high resolution computed tomography in interstitial lung disease and to characterize and classify various ILD according to their HRCT appearance.
Material and Methods: The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional conducted in the Department of Radiodiagnosis, of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Gujarat. One Hundred patients were included during the study period. . Patients having pulmonary symptoms related to any acute/chronic interstitial or diffuse pulmonary disease with significant radiographic findings of chest and willing to participate in the study were recruited in the study. The demography (age, gender), history and chest radiograph findings of patients were recorded.
Results: In our study, 60 patients were diagnosed as idiopathic interstitial lung disease and 40 patients were diagnosed as non-idiopathic interstitial lung disease where the cause of interstitial lung disease was known, out of which 19 patients were diagnosed as silicosis, 12 patients as hypersensitive pneumonitis, 4 patient was a diagnosed case of scleroderma and 5 patients were suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Among 40 cases most of them were IPF/UIP, followed by AIP. Honey combing is predominantly confined to UIP/IPF, Traction bronchiectasis is predominantly seen in UIP/IPF, Ground glass opacity is mostly seen in NSIP followed by AIP.
Conclusion: The different HRCT findings and the location of these findings in the lung often enable a specific diagnosis of ILD to be made in a given patient obviating the need for lung biopsy. HRCT is a non-invasive imaging modality for evaluation of lung parenchyma. The high spatial resolution makes HRCT superior to other imaging modalities. Hence any case with suspected interstitial lung disease should always be subjected to HRCT to reach the final diagnosis.
