Pulmonary Tuberculosis: CT and Pathologic Correlation

Typical CT findings of active postprimary pulmonary tuberculosis include centrilobular nodules and branching linear structures (tree-in-bud appearance), lobular consolidation, cavitation, and bronchial wall thickening. The CT findings of inactive pulmonary tuberculosis include calcified nodules or consolidation, irregular linear opacity, parenchymal bands, and pericicatricial emphysema. The typical appearance of primary tuberculosis on CT scans is homogeneous, dense, well-defined segmental or lobar consolidation with enlargement of lymph nodes in the hilum or the mediastinum. Miliary nodules may be seen in primary and postprimary tuberculosis. On CT, tuberculomas appear as a nodule with surrounding satellite nodules and internal cavitation on CT. Atypical radiologic manifestations of tuberculosis, encountered in as many as one third of the cases of adult-onset tuberculosis, are single or multiple nodules or masses, basilar infiltrates, miliary tuberculosis with diffuse bilateral areas of ground-glass opacity, and reversible multiple cysts. Underlying histopathologic findings of typical and atypical CT findings of tuberculosis are caseating granulomas or pneumonia in the active phase and fibrosis and dystrophic calcification in the inactive phase.