[Pitfalls in diagnostic imaging and assessment of benign asbestos-related thoracic diseases]

Abstract

The recognition of asbestos-related diseases of the lung and/or pleura as an occupational disease is of psychosocial, medical and legal importance to the insured person. Radiological imaging is an essential part of the assessment and requires an increasingly high level of competence in the field of radiological diagnosis of pneumoconiosis in interdisciplinary collaboration with occupational medicine and pneumonology. The chest radiogram remains an integral part of basic diagnostic procedures in asbestos-related diseases of the lungs and/or pleura. Its importance lies in the detection of extended pleural changes as well as substantial fibrosis. The inherent low sensitivity and specificity of projection radiography is taken into account by the increasing use of multi-slice high resolution (HR) CT (in low dose technique). Radiological pitfalls in pleural plaque assessment with respect to plain chest X-ray concern all structures that superimpose on the pleural circumference, particularly the anatomical layers of the chest wall (extra-pleural fatty tissue, muscles, thoracic skeleton) as well as other pulmonary findings that can only be reliably assigned using CT. Even if state-of the-art CT is applied, asymmetries and abnormal expression of anatomical structures and variants (e. g. muscles and blood vessels) can lead to false-positive findings. The interstitial fibrosis of asbestosis, manifested as usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) is non-pathognomonic for asbestosis. Therefore, parietal pleural thickening as a coincident finding to UIP is considered as being the main feature and a highly suggestive indicator of asbestosis in patients with a history of asbestos exposure.