CT findings of pneumonia after lung transplantation

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to describe the CT findings of pne umonia in patients who had undergone lung transplantation and to determine if specific imaging features existed for the different infectious organisms . MATERIALS AND METHODS. The authors retrospectively reviewed the medical rec ords of 262 patients with transplanted lungs at two lung transplantation ce nters. Patients with a documented pneumonia and correlating abnormal findin gs on CT (39 patients with 45 pneumonias) were included in the study. RESULTS. Of 45 pneumonias, Cytomegalovirus (n = 15), Pseudomonas (n = 7), a nd Aspergillus (n = 8) organisms were the most common single responsible in fectious agents. The most common CT findings of pneumonia consisted of cons olidation (n = 37; 82%), ground-glass opacification (n = 34; 76%), septal t hickening (n = 33; 73%), pleural effusion (n = 33; 73%), and multiple (n = 25; 56%) or single (n = 2; 4%) nodules. No significant difference in the pr evalence of findings was revealed among bacterial. viral, and fungal pneumo nias (p > .05, chi-square test). Of 15 pneumonias in patients with a single transplanted lung, parenchymal abnormalities involved both lungs in 12 (48 %), only the transplanted lung in 11 (44%), and only the native lung in two (8%). CONCLUSION. The manifestations revealed on CT of bacterial, viral, and fung al pneumonia after lung transplantation are similar, consisting of a combin ation of consolidation, ground-glass opacification, septal thickening. pleu ral effusion, or multiple nodules, Therefore, these findings cannot be used to suggest the infectious organisms in this patient population.