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I Had A Cat Scan Of Abdomen With Contrast. One

Posted on Fri, 28 Feb 2020

Question: I had a cat scan of abdomen with contrast. One of the finding was “ The heart is normal in size. There is no pericardial or left pleural effusion. There is a very minimal amount of right pleural fluid. ”. I am thinking the worst. My doctor wants to follow-up with a chest ray. Can someone tell me if this is very serious?

Answered by Dr. Drkaushal85 (55 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
This is not serious.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for your question on Ask a doctor forum.
I can understand your concern.
I have gone through the CT report you have mentioned.
This report is suggestive of right pleural effusion. And most probably it is due to infection.
So antibiotics should be given.
No need to worry for heart or lung diseases.
Hope I have solved your query. I will be happy to help you further. Wish you good health. Thanks.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj

Follow up: Dr. Drkaushal85 (21 hours later)

Dear Dr. Bhavsar,
Thank you for your explanation to my previous question.
I followed up with a chest X-ray. The Impression from this report states that are no radiographic findings of residual plural fluid.
However, it does state that there is mild bibasilar scarring/atelectasis.
What does this mean? Thank you.

Answered by Dr. Drkaushal85 (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
There is no comparison between chest x ray and CT scan.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for your follow up question on Ask a doctor forum.
Practically, there is no comparison between chest x ray and CT scan.
CT scan is more reliable and accurate.
Chest x ray can be false positive and findings varies with radiologists. One radiologist can report chest x ray like normal while other may report same x ray as abnormal.
This is the reason why we rely more on CT scan.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj