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Case 67 - Prominent subpleural fat with chronic pleural disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2011

By
Thomas Hartman
Edited by
Thomas Hartman
Thomas Hartman
Affiliation:
Mayo Clinic, Rochester
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Summary

Imaging

In the setting of a focal or diffuse pleural abnormality, the underlying subpleural fat can be thickened (Figures 67.1–67.3). This is likely due to hypertrophy secondary to chronic inflammation. As such, the presence of thickening of the subpleural fat is a strong indicator of chronic and, therefore, benign pleural disease (1–4). However, it should be stressed that thickened subpleural fat is not seen with every case of benign pleural disease and therefore the absence of thickening of the subpleural fat is not indicative of malignancy.

Importance

Recognition of thickened subpleural fat adjacent to a pleural abnormality is a strong predictor that the associated pleural abnormality is benign.

Type
Chapter
Information
Pearls and Pitfalls in Thoracic Imaging
Variants and Other Difficult Diagnoses
 , pp. 178 - 179
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

Metintas, MUcgun, IElbek, OComputed tomography features in malignant pleural mesothelioma and other commonly seen pleural diseasesEur J Radiology 2002 41 1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leung, ANMuller, NLMiller, RR.CT in differential diagnosis of diffuse pleural diseaseAJR Am J Roentgenol 1990 154 487CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muller, NL.Imaging of the pleuraRadiology 1993 186 298CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aberle, DRBalmes, JR.Computed tomography of asbestos-related pulmonary parenchymal and pleural diseasesClin Chest Med 1991 12 115Google ScholarPubMed

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