CT Fingdings of Pulmonary Carcinoid

Objective: Explore the CT findings of pulmonary carcinoid to improve the diagnosis of the disease. Methods: Clinical data and radiologic findings were retrospectively reviewed for 8 patients with pathologically confirmed pulmonary carcinoid. Results: All the 8 cases were unilateral, and 4 of them were central pulmonary carcinoid. The CT features of the 4 central pulmonary carcinoid were the hypodense nodule in the main bronchus showed the "parallel thickening" sign, with obstructive inflammation and pulmonary atelectasis. None of the lesions showed the calcification, necrosis or cystic change. Besides, the other 4 cases were peripheral pulmonary carcinoid. Two cases with shallow lobulations were observed. Two cases showed the "Short burr", one cases with calcification, and 2 cases with heterogeneous hypodense nodules. There are 3 cases with pleural thickening. Of the 4 cases of peripheral pulmonary carcinoid, there were no obstructive inflammation, mucoid impactions sign, obstructive atelectasis,obstructive emphysema or pleural effusion. All cases had no hilus pulmonis or mediastinal lymph node metastasis or distant metastasis. Five of the 8 cases underwent enhancement scan, and all of them showed homogeneously significant enhancement. Conclusions: pulmonary carcinoid showed the certain spectrum of CT features which may improve the diagnosis.