SOLITARY CIRCUMSCRIBED LESIONS OF LUNG

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
THE PERSON who has a solitary circumscribed lesion in the lung presents a difficult diagnostic problem. In military personnel such nodules are often found on routine roentgenograms of the chest made incident to administrative physical examinations or in persons hospitalized for some unrelated condition. Many of these so-called "coin" lesions have been found in civilian practice during mass roentgenographic surveys for tuberculosis. From a review of over 714 histologically proved cases reported it is evident that about 80% of these nodular infiltrates represent a serious disease process (Table 1). Malignant tumors make up 35% of the total, and, of these, three-fourths are primary bronchogenic carcinomas; one-eighth are metastatic tumors; one-tenth are bronchial adenomas (5 to 10% eventually metastasize), and the remainder are sarcomas of various types. Forty per cent of the total are inflammatory lesions, many of which may be dangerous foci of tuberculosis. Of the remaining heterogeneous lesions, some