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Missed Lung Lesions

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Diseases of the Heart and Chest, Including Breast 2011–2014

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Abstract

Missed lung lesions are one of the most frequent causes of malpractice issues [1–3]. Chest radiography plays an important role in detecting and managing lung cancer, chronic airways disease, pneumonia and interstitial lung disease. Among all diagnostic tests, chest radiography is essential for confirming or excluding the diagnosis of most chest diseases. However, numerous lesions of a wide variety of disease processes affecting the thorax may be missed on a chest radiograph. For example, the frequency of missed lung carcinoma on chest radiographs can vary from 12% to 90%, depending on study design [4]. Despite the lack of convincing evidence that screening for lung cancer with the chest radiograph improves mortality rates, chest radiography is still requested for this purpose [5, 6]. The chest radiograph also helps narrow a differential diagnosis, helps direct additional diagnostic measures, and serves during follow-up. The diagnostic usefulness of the radiograph is maximized by the integrating radiological findings with clinical features of the individual patient [7]. In this chapter, we review the more important radiological principles regarding missed lung lesions in a variety of common chest diseases, with a special focus on how correlation with multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) of missed lung lesions can help improve interpretation of the plain chest radiograph.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radiology Department, Clinique des Grangettes, Geneva, Switzerland

    Nigel Howarth

  2. Radiology Department, RHMS, Clinique Louis Caty, Brussels, Belgium

    Denis Tack

Authors
  1. Nigel Howarth
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  2. Denis Tack
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Radiology, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland

    J. Hodler

  2. Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland

    G. K. von Schulthess

  3. Kilchberg/Zurich, Switzerland

    Ch. L. Zollikofer

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Italia

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Howarth, N., Tack, D. (2011). Missed Lung Lesions. In: Hodler, J., von Schulthess, G.K., Zollikofer, C.L. (eds) Diseases of the Heart and Chest, Including Breast 2011–2014. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-1938-6_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-1938-6_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Milano

  • Print ISBN: 978-88-470-1937-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-88-470-1938-6

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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