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What Does The Following CT Scan Report Suggest?
What if there is an impression of few tiny fibro nodular infiltrates seen in right upper zone, 7mm calcified lesion seen in right upper zone, most likely to represent calcified granuloma, clinical and lab parameter correlation is suggested to rule out possibility of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Tue, 18 Sep 2018
Hi,
Lung nodules are a common finding on chest X-ray and CT scans of the chest, and when they are calcified, as in your case, they are almost always benign (meaning they are not cancer). Probably because of the location of the nodules in the upper part of your lung, the radiologist thought about tuberculosis since this is often where tuberculosis is seen in the lung.
Assuming you don't have any signs of active diseases, such as a cough, fever, or weight loss, they might want to check you for latent tuberculosis, which means you were infected at some time in the past, but your immune system was able to control it by creating a granuloma. Though the immune system is controlling it, there is still a risk of tuberculosis causing problems if something weakened your immune system.
Your doctor can do a skin or a blood test to check to see if you have been exposed to tuberculosis in the past. If it does show that you have latent tuberculosis, you can be treated with antibiotics for several months to clear your body of the bacteria.
That being said, if you have not been in an area of the world where there is a lot of tuberculosis, or have never been around anyone that has tuberculosis as far as you know, I would expect these nodules to be completely benign. The largest nodule would usually be check again in 6 to 12 months to make sure it is not growing.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Aaron Branch,
General & Family Physician
Lung nodules are a common finding on chest X-ray and CT scans of the chest, and when they are calcified, as in your case, they are almost always benign (meaning they are not cancer). Probably because of the location of the nodules in the upper part of your lung, the radiologist thought about tuberculosis since this is often where tuberculosis is seen in the lung.
Assuming you don't have any signs of active diseases, such as a cough, fever, or weight loss, they might want to check you for latent tuberculosis, which means you were infected at some time in the past, but your immune system was able to control it by creating a granuloma. Though the immune system is controlling it, there is still a risk of tuberculosis causing problems if something weakened your immune system.
Your doctor can do a skin or a blood test to check to see if you have been exposed to tuberculosis in the past. If it does show that you have latent tuberculosis, you can be treated with antibiotics for several months to clear your body of the bacteria.
That being said, if you have not been in an area of the world where there is a lot of tuberculosis, or have never been around anyone that has tuberculosis as far as you know, I would expect these nodules to be completely benign. The largest nodule would usually be check again in 6 to 12 months to make sure it is not growing.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Aaron Branch,
General & Family Physician
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