RADIOLOGY

Cardiology
Respiratory
1. Asthma
Plain radiograph
Plain chest radiographs can be normal in up to 75% of patients with asthma.
Reported features with asthma include:
pulmonary hyperinflation
bronchial wall thickening: peribronchial cuffing (non specific finding but may be
present in ~48% of cases with asthma 1)
pulmonary oedema (rare): pulmonary oedema due to asthma (usually occurs
with acute asthma)

CT Chest/HRCT chest
CT is usually use to detect the presence of complicated associated conditions
such as allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and not to directly diagnose
asthma.
Reported HRCT features of asthma are non specific as individual features, they
include:
bronchial wall thickening
expiratory air trapping
inspiratory decreased lung attenuation
small centrilobular opacifities
bronchial luminal narrowing: reduced bronchoarterial-diameter ratio
subsegmental bronchiectasis: may be present in ~28-62% of asthmatics