Is ground-glass opacity in the lungs a common disease?

There are many patients with lung diseases in clinical practice. Normal lung diseases can be accurately diagnosed through examinations. However, if symptoms of ground-glass opacity appear during the examination, patients should seek timely treatment, because such symptoms are often signs of some lung diseases. To prevent lung diseases, regular physical examinations are necessary. So is ground-glass opacity a common disease?

First, is ground-glass opacity in the lungs a common disease? Ground-glass opacity in the lungs, small lung nodules, and lung cancer are three different concepts, and there is no necessary connection between the three. The conceptual difference between shadow and nodule is that shadow refers to the shadow found in imaging examination, with no limit on size or shape, while nodule refers to a round lesion with clear boundaries within 3 cm. The imaging manifestation of early lung cancer is small lung nodules, but small lung nodules are not equal to lung cancer.

Second, GGO (ground-grass opacity) is ground-glass opacity, a lung CT sign. It appears as a translucent shadow with increased density in the lungs, with low density and a usually negative CT value, in which lung texture (pulmonary arteriovenous shadows) can be seen. It is mainly divided into diffuse GGO and localized GGO. The latter is shaped like a nodule and is also called ground glass nodule (GGN). GGN is divided into two types according to its internal density, namely simple GGN (non-solid nodule) and mixed GGN (partially solid nodule).

Third, the lung parenchyma is a structure related to ventilation structure, mainly alveoli; the pulmonary interstitium is a support structure and a structure related to fluid exchange, mainly distributed in: bronchial artery sheath (around the pulmonary artery), alveolar septum, interlobular septum and around the pulmonary vein and under the visceral pleura.

Is ground-glass opacity a common disease? Ground-glass opacity is called GGO (GGN) in English. It refers to the discovery during chest CT scan, which appears as a slightly increased density of cloudy, thin shadows/round nodules. It looks like frosted glass, so it is called ground-glass opacity. It can grow diffusely or only locally, looking like a small ground glass nodule. Generally speaking, diffuse growth is mostly benign lesions, while focal growth is more likely to be bad. Don’t be scared when talking about ground-glass opacities in the lungs, as they are not necessarily cancer. Sometimes, lung inflammation,

This change can be caused by hemorrhage or fibrosis (scarring left behind after inflammation), but is more likely to be malignant.