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Showed Mild Focal Scarring Upper Right Lobe. Had CT Scan For Ongoing Infections. Suggest
Question: had a ct of lungs. showed mild focal scarring upper right lobe. had another scan 2 years later. said it was unchanged. should i be worried about this being progressive? i have not ever had pneumonia. had ct originally for ongoing infections. dad died of pulmonary fibrosis. i dont smoke.
Hi,
Thank you for your question and welcome to our site.
This scar has nothing to do with pneumonia, smoking, nor pulmonary fibrosis. It is commonly due to a primary complex that you may have obtained when you were still a child/teenager. You may have been exposed to someone who was infected with TB then. These are old infections with TB that have been defeated by your immune system way back in the past but have left calcified scars in your right lung apex. These, unfortunately, are permanent scars but you have nothing to worry about them being progressive especially if the repeat scan confirmed that nothing changed.
So please, do not worry about them. You may ask your physician if he/she still wants to monitor it through scheduled chest X-rays or another repeat CT but this will just increase (albeit minimally) your exposure to the x-ray's radiation.
Do continue living a healthy lifestyle - eat a healthy balanced diet, exercise and practice good hygiene! These, together with not smoking, will really help you in the long run in preventing chronic diseases.
I hope I was able to answer your question. If you have further queries, please do not hesitate to ask them. Otherwise, you may opt to close this thread and rate the answer.
You know how to reach me if you have any concerns. Take care!
Dr. Galera
Thank you for your question and welcome to our site.
This scar has nothing to do with pneumonia, smoking, nor pulmonary fibrosis. It is commonly due to a primary complex that you may have obtained when you were still a child/teenager. You may have been exposed to someone who was infected with TB then. These are old infections with TB that have been defeated by your immune system way back in the past but have left calcified scars in your right lung apex. These, unfortunately, are permanent scars but you have nothing to worry about them being progressive especially if the repeat scan confirmed that nothing changed.
So please, do not worry about them. You may ask your physician if he/she still wants to monitor it through scheduled chest X-rays or another repeat CT but this will just increase (albeit minimally) your exposure to the x-ray's radiation.
Do continue living a healthy lifestyle - eat a healthy balanced diet, exercise and practice good hygiene! These, together with not smoking, will really help you in the long run in preventing chronic diseases.
I hope I was able to answer your question. If you have further queries, please do not hesitate to ask them. Otherwise, you may opt to close this thread and rate the answer.
You know how to reach me if you have any concerns. Take care!
Dr. Galera
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Raju A.T
Answered by
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