Surf Wiki
Save to docs
philosophy

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Pulmonary consolidation

Medical condition of the lung

Summary

Medical condition of the lung

FieldValue
namePulmonary consolidation
imagePneumonia x-ray.jpg
captionPneumonia as seen on chest X-ray. A: Normal chest X-ray. B: Abnormal chest X-ray with consolidation from pneumonia in the right lung, middle or inferior lobe (white area, left side of image).

A pulmonary consolidation is a region of normally compressible lung tissue that has been filled with liquid instead of air. The condition is marked by induration (swelling or hardening of normally soft tissue) of a normally aerated lung. It is considered a radiologic sign. Consolidation occurs through accumulation of inflammatory cellular exudate in the alveoli and adjoining ducts. The liquid can be pulmonary edema, inflammatory exudate, pus, inhaled water, or blood (from bronchial tree or hemorrhage from a pulmonary artery). Consolidation must be present to diagnose pneumonia: the signs of lobar pneumonia are characteristic and clinically referred to as consolidation.

Signs

Signs that consolidation may have occurred include:

  • Expansion of the thorax on inspiration is reduced on the affected side
  • Vocal fremitus is increased on the affected side
  • Percussion note is impaired in the affected area
  • Breath sounds are bronchial
  • Possible medium, late, or pan-inspiratory crackles
  • Vocal resonance is increased. Here, the patient's voice (or whisper, as in whispered pectoriloquy) can be heard more clearly when there is consolidation, as opposed to the healthy lung where speech sounds muffled.
  • A pleural rub may be present.
  • A lower PAO2 than calculated in the alveolar gas equation

Diagnosis

Radiology

  • Typically, an area of white lung is seen on a standard X-ray. Consolidated tissue is more radio-opaque than normally aerated lung parenchyma, so that it is clearly demonstrable in radiography and on CT scans. Consolidation is often a middle-to-late stage feature/complication in pulmonary infections.

References

References

  1. "Consolidation – Definition". Merriam-Webster.
  2. "Induration- Definition". Merriam-Webster.
  3. (2002). "Chest X-Ray Made Easy". Churchill Livingstone.
  4. (1997). "Does this patient have community-acquired pneumonia? Diagnosing pneumonia by history and physical examination". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.
  5. Talley, Nicholas Joseph (2001). ''Clinical Examination, a Clinical Guide to Physical Diagnosis'', Wiley, 4th ed., p. 121, {{ISBN. 0632059710.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

medical-terminology radiologic-signs
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Pulmonary consolidation — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report