PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eloísa Silva
AU  - Marta Sousa
AU  - Jorge Vale
AU  - Vitor Melo
AU  - António Reis
AU  - António Simões Torres
TI  - Solitary pulmonary nodule uncovered
DP  - 2013 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P2261
VI  - 42
IP  - Suppl 57
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P2261.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P2261.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2013 Sep 01; 42
AB  - Introduction: The approach to the solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN), pursuing a premature diagnosis of malignancy, remains a challenge in critical practice.Objectives: to evaluate the clinical and imaging characteristics of the nodule and determine the variables associated with malignancy.Methods: retrospective study, through review of clinical files of patients with SPN.Results: 47 patients were included, 51.1% female, with an average age of 63.4 years. On 66% of the patients lesion was seen on chest X-ray. Most nodules were located in the right inferior lobe (27.7%).The most prevalent etiologies were malignancy (36.2%), hamartoma (17%) and tuberculoma (6.4%). Malignant nodules were predominantly located in the right inferior lobe (35.3%), were > 2cm (70.6%) with solid attenuation (76.5%) and irregular/spiculated borders (76.5%); 47.1% had pleural tail and 17.6% had air bronchograms; no calcification or cavitation were seen on these nodules. 93.3% showed contrast enhancement on CT, mostly heterogeneous, and 84.6% FDG enhancement on PET-CT. Older age, nodule size, pleural tail, heterogeneous enhancement on CT and FDG enhancement on PET were statistically related to malignancy.Conclusion: Malignancy showed a prevalence of 36.2%. Older age, nodule size, pleural tail, heterogeneous enhancement on CT and enhancement on PET were statistically related to malignancy.