With the popularization of chest low-dose spiral CT screening, the detection rate of pulmonary nodules has increased greatly. 70-80% of the people who do chest CT will show the words "small pulmonary nodules" on the inspection report. Compared with single small nodules, multiple small nodules are more common.
But when many people get the report, they panic when they see such words as "pulmonary nodules" and "multiple": are there so many nodules on the lung, serious? Is it a malignant tumor? I scared myself first. In fact, is it really terrible to have multiple small pulmonary nodules in both lungs? This is not necessarily.
Multiple small nodules in both lungs, is it malignant?
Spherical or quasi spherical lesions with lung CT ≤ 3cm are called nodules 1 cm is a small nodule, and<5 mm is a small nodule.
The reason why people nowadays turn pale when talking about nodules is that they have heard too much news, so when they see lung nodules, they think of lung cancer. But the fact is that pulmonary nodules and lung cancer are two different concepts.
The majority of small pulmonary nodules are benign. In terms of the size of pulmonary nodules, the canceration rate of nodules with diameter less than 3 mm is only about 0.2%; Considering the density and size, the malignant probability of small solid nodules with diameter ≤ 6mm is less than 1%, and most of them are benign.
Among the detected pulmonary nodules, less than 2% were considered malignant and required surgical intervention after regular follow-up review, professional judgment and professional examination. The malignant probability of multiple nodules is lower than that of single nodules.
Pulmonary nodules: only a few are malignant
There are many causes of pulmonary nodules. In addition to malignant tumors, there are also quite a few benign pulmonary nodules, such as the damage of long-term smoking to the lung, or pneumonia, bronchiectasis, infectious granuloma, tuberculosis, chronic inflammation, fibrosis, lung scars, benign tumors and other reasons. After lung damage, there may be some scars left, which will be manifested in the form of small nodules. These are not a big problem.
Just like the wounds and bruises caused by bumps in our daily life, it takes a certain time to recover, and some of them hurt the dermis. After such wounds are recovered, the skin will leave scars and become darker.
Our lungs are the same. They are all composed of muscles, blood vessels, etc. Because the lungs are connected with the outside world through respiration. On the one hand, they bring oxygen to the human body and exhale carbon dioxide, but on the other hand, small impurities in the air will also be sucked in, such as toxic and harmful gases, dust, tuberculosis bacteria, mold, viruses, and other things that damage the lungs. The lungs have the ability to heal themselves, For slight damage to the lungs, the scar formed after automatic repair is the pulmonary nodule.
Therefore, the first physical examination, especially for young friends, has no symptoms. Only small pulmonary nodules are found in the physical examination. If they are less than 8mm, most of them are benign. Don't be nervous. Although there is no major problem, we still need to go to a regular hospital to see a specialist, follow up regularly as instructed by the doctor.
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https://www.cn-healthcare.com/articlewm/20220915/content-1435550.html
