Mosaic Attenuation: Etiology, Methods of Differentiation, and Pitfalls
- 1 September 2015
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in RadioGraphics
- Vol. 35 (5), 1360-1380
- https://doi.org/10.1148/rg.2015140308
Abstract
Mosaic attenuation is a commonly encountered pattern on computed tomography that is defined as heterogeneous areas of differing lung attenuation. This heterogeneous pattern of attenuation is the result of diverse causes that include diseases of the small airways, pulmonary vasculature, alveoli, and interstitium, alone or in combination. Small airways disease can be a primary disorder, such as respiratory bronchiolitis or constrictive bronchiolitis, or be part of parenchymal lung disease, such as hypersensitivity pneumonitis, or large airways disease, such as bronchiectasis and asthma. Vascular causes resulting in mosaic attenuation are typically chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, which is characterized by organizing thrombi in the elastic pulmonary arteries, or pulmonary arterial hypertension, a heterogeneous group of diseases affecting the distal pulmonary arterioles. Diffuse ground-glass opacity can result in a mosaic pattern related to a number of processes in acute (eg, infection, pulmonary edema), subacute (eg, organizing pneumonia), or chronic (eg, fibrotic diseases) settings. Imaging clues that can assist the radiologist in pinpointing a diagnosis include evidence of large airway involvement, cardiovascular abnormalities, septal thickening, signs of fibrosis, and demonstration of airtrapping at expiratory imaging. ©RSNA, 2015Keywords
This publication has 82 references indexed in Scilit:
- Current Role of Imaging in the Diagnosis and Management of Pulmonary HypertensionAmerican Journal of Roentgenology, 2012
- Pneumocystis jiroveci Pneumonia: High-Resolution CT Findings in Patients With and Without HIV InfectionAmerican Journal of Roentgenology, 2012
- Reference Values for Normal Pulmonary Artery Dimensions by Noncontrast Cardiac Computed TomographyCirculation: Cardiovascular Imaging, 2012
- Diffuse alveolar haemorrhage: factors associated with in-hospital and long-term mortalityEuropean Respiratory Journal, 2009
- Fleischner Society: Glossary of Terms for Thoracic ImagingRadiology, 2008
- Roger S. Mitchell Lecture. Rheumatoid Lung DiseaseProceedings of the American Thoracic Society, 2007
- Diffuse idiopathic pulmonary neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia: an under-recognised spectrum of diseaseThorax, 2007
- Respiratory bronchiolitis, respiratory bronchiolitis-associated interstitial lung disease, and desquamative interstitial pneumonia: different entities or part of the spectrum of the same disease process?American Journal of Roentgenology, 1999
- Accuracy of high-resolution CT in identifying chronic pulmonary thromboembolic disease.American Journal of Roentgenology, 1996
- Ground-glass opacity of the lung parenchyma: a guide to analysis with high-resolution CT.American Journal of Roentgenology, 1993