Low grade coal worker's pneumoconiosis. Comparison of CT and chest radiography.

We compared CT with chest radiography (CR) in the assessment of low grade coal worker's pneumoconiosis (CWP) in a population of 83 subjects. All subjects had a high-voltage p.a. CR, graded according to the ILO classification between 0/0 and 1/1, a conventional CT (CCT) using contiguous 1-cm-thick sections on the entire thorax and a set of 10 high-resolution CT (HRCT) images. CR and CT were separately read by consensus by 2 teams of 2 trained readers. CR was coded 0/0 in 9 subjects; 0/1 in 31; 1/0 in 28; 1/1 in 15. Among these groups of patients, micronodules were detected by CT in respectively 2 (22%), 14 (45%), 17 (61%) and 10 (67%) patients. In all groups, micronodules were more often detected by CT when the opacities detected on CR were scored as rounded (p, q) than irregular (s, t). Among the patients graded 0/0 or 0/1, CT showed micronodules in 40%. By contrast, among the patients graded 1/0 or 1/1, CT did not show micronodules in 37%, but revealed in numerous patients that opacities detected on CR were related to bronchiectasis and/or emphysema only. Comparative analysis of HRCT and CCT showed that both techniques are complementary and proved the usefulness of CCT in the detection or confirmation of low profusion of micronodules.