I'm Dr Hiroaki Arakawa from St. Marianna University, School of Medicine, Kawasaki, Japan. My poster is ... to describe the HLCT findings of bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia (BOOP) and chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (CEP). And, to make clear the different points on HLCT. Both diseases have been considered to share many features, at clinical, laboratory, and even pathological findings. And some authorities say that both diseases cannot discriminate on HLCT. But nobody tried it. My present paper is to describe the difference. We um, describe the abnormalities in each diseases, and their distribution.

We collected many BOOP cases, and CEP cases from two universities, Japanese University Hospital; thirty eight BOOP patients and 43 CEP patients. And, in the first session, we described the HLCT findings. And, in the next, second session, two radiologists independently made diagnosis by three different confidence levels, which held six months later. In the first session we found no differences between the occurrence of each abnormalities, except for the presence of nodule in the BOOP. And the presence of nodule in the BOOP is proven to be the most reliable sign. And um, regarding the distribution, no difference was noted except for the peri-bronchial consolidation in the BOOP.

And also, there is a significant difference in the presence of non-septal lines in the BOOP cases. And the presence of non-septal linear or reticular opacity is very ... very specific to BOOP.

But few cases in CEP. And the presence of septal lines is also commonly seen in both diseases, but significantly more common in CEP. The presence of bronchial dilatation is significantly more common in BOOP than in CEP. And, these are the differences between the two diseases.

We keep these findings in mind, and six months later we tried the second session. In the section session, we rated the confidence- "definite", BOOP or CEP, "probable", and "possible". And um, the two reviewers made correct diagnosis in about 70 percent of the cases.

But, high confidence definite diagnosis was obtained between 15 and 20 percent. Um, from these observations my conclusion is that these two diseases can be discriminated on HLCT scans, but, with a high confidence level, very limited cases. That's my conclusion.

Back to main page