What is the cause of glassy nodular inflammation in the lungs?

In recent years, with the worsening of air pollution, people’s living environment has become increasingly worse, resulting in a sharp increase in the risk of disease for many people. Among them, lung disease has the greatest impact, because the lungs are the base for air circulation in the body. Harmful substances in the air can cause great damage to lung cells and lead to disease. Let’s take a look at what is lung glass nodule inflammation?

Ground-glass nodules in the lungs are commonly classified into inflammatory nodules and non-inflammatory nodules. The main causes of disease are infections such as bacterial microorganisms and viruses. It is recommended to go to the hospital for an enhanced CT scan to further confirm the diagnosis, rule out other diseases, and receive symptomatic treatment. It is recommended to conduct routine blood tests, combined with a series of cancer antigen tests, to clarify the nature of the lesion and provide timely and accurate treatment.

Ground-glass shadows in the lungs can be divided into two categories based on their distribution range in imaging: diffuse and localized. Diffuse ground-glass shadows generally have unclear boundaries and are light, thin, and slightly higher-density shadows that do not cover blood vessels and bronchi. It can be seen in the early stages of many diseases such as pneumonia, pulmonary edema, and alveolar proteinosis. The ground-glass nodules in the lungs are localized ground-glass shadows. They are divided into simple ground-glass nodules and mixed ground-glass nodules (containing solid components) according to whether they contain solid components. Ground-glass nodules in the lungs can be seen in inflammatory lesions, focal hemorrhage, focal fibrosis, atypical adenomatous hyperplasia and lung adenocarcinoma.

The appearance of ground-glass shadows in the lungs does not necessarily mean cancer. Sometimes, lung inflammation, bleeding, and fibrosis (scars left after inflammation) can cause this change. Thin-layer CT combined with three-dimensional reconstruction and regular dynamic CT observation are helpful in distinguishing benign from malignant lesions: GGNs with obvious lobulation, cavitation, pleural indentation signs or obvious solid components (such as poached eggs, thick in the middle and thin at the periphery) indicate malignant lesions; if the lesions disappear or significantly shrink during follow-up, inflammatory reactions may be considered; if the GGN enlarges, the lesion density becomes solid, or there are tumor microvascular CT imaging signs during follow-up, it indicates malignant lesions.