Reversed halo sign on high-resolution CT of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia: diagnostic implications.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to evaluate the usefulness of the reversed halo sign on high-resolution CT in the diagnosis of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between 1996 and 2001, we saw 31 patients with biopsy-proven cryptogenic organizing pneumonia. During the same period, we also saw 30 patients with non-cryptogenic organizing pneumonia diseases, from which cryptogenic organizing pneumonia should be differentiated: Wegener's granulomatosis (n = 14), diffuse bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (n = 10), chronic eosinophilic pneumonia (n = 5), and Churg-Strauss syndrome (n = 1). Two independent observers analyzed CT findings and recorded how frequently the so-called reversed halo sign (central ground-glass opacity and surrounding air-space consolidation of crescentic and ring shape) was seen on high-resolution CT.

RESULTS: The most common patterns of parenchymal abnormalities of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia were ground-glass opacity (28/31 patients, 90%) and consolidation (27/31, 87%). The ground-glass opacity pattern showed random distribution, and the consolidation pattern showed subpleural or peribronchovascular (20/27 patients, 74%) distribution with predominance in the middle or lower lung zone. The reversed CT halo sign was seen in six (19%) of 31 patients with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia and in none of the patients with the diseases that needed to be differentiated from cryptogenic organizing pneumonia on CT.

CONCLUSION: The reversed halo sign, although seen only in one fifth of patients with the disease, appears relatively specific to make a diagnosis of cryptogenic organizing pneumonia on CT.