Imaging of occupational and environmental lung diseases

The chest radiograph is the basic tool for identifying occupational and environmental lung diseases; however, its sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of occupational and environmental lung diseases are low. High-resolution CT is the optimal method of recognizing parenchymal abnormalities in occupational and environmental disease. With the exception of pleural plaques, the CT findings of occupational and environmental lung diseases are nonspecific. Therefore, correlation of imaging features with history of exposure, other clinical features, and sometimes pathology is needed for the diagnosis of pneumoconiosis.