Chest X Ray And Ct Scan - Diagnosing Copd: Smoking Cessation
Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School
Chest x-ray and CT scan
You will probably have a chest x-ray either during your initial evaluation or later, when the doctor already knows you have COPD and wants to determine the extent of the damage to your lungs. Although x-rays don't typically detect early changes of COPD, they may help eliminate other potential causes of respiratory symptoms.
If you have emphysema, your lungs may appear larger than normal on the x-ray and be holding abnormally large amounts of air. Also, your diaphragm may appear flattened because of the pressure from overinflated lungs. If you have chronic bronchitis, a chest x-ray is likely to look normal, or it might show some nonspecific abnormalities, such as extra markings that represent inflamed airways.
A CT scan is sensitive enough to diagnose emphysema. It can provide physicians with more detail about how extensively the lungs have been affected.
| Last updated: | May 23, 2007 |
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Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.
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