Role of Chest X-Ray and HRCT thorax in Diagnosis of Pulmonary Diseases in PLWH Patient

The pulmonary manifestations of HIV remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Most patients develop a pulmonary complication during the history of HIV infection, mainly of infectious etiology include-Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), Pneumocystis carinii (PCP), cytomegalovirus (CMV), other bacterial infection etc. Respiratory infections, especially tuberculosis (TB), are leading causes of illness and death in India. Plain chest radiography is an initial imaging study for an HIV infected patient with suspected pulmonary infection. However, Chest X-ray is normal in many of these patients. High resolution CT of thorax provide a more accurate diagnosis, allowing clarification of findings identified or not identified on plain radiograph, determination of the extent and radiographic pattern of disease; evaluation of the mediastinum. Methods: In our study we included 47 patients who came during the study period. After a detailed clinical work up in pulmonary or medicine department, both chest X-ray and HRCT thorax done in our radiology department. The finding of chest and x-ray and HRCT thorax are analysed and compared and the final result is tabulated. Result: The final result obtained after comparing the finding of Chest X-ray and HRCT thorax, it is found that HRCT was able to detect more abnormalities than conventional chest X-ray in the diagnosis of various parenchymal lung diseases and there is significant statistical difference between finding of plain chest X-ray and finding of HRCT thorax. Interpretation and conclusion: It is found that HRCT is better modality of investigation than conventional chest radiography in the detailed diagnosis of parenchymal lung diseases. HRCT was able to detect abnormalities even in cases when the chest radiograph was normal indicating higher sensitivity and specificity of HRCT in diagnosis of parenchymal lung disease.