The Aging Lung: Clinical and Imaging Findings and the Fringe of Physiological State

Abstract

Since aspects of demographic transition have become an essential part of socioeconomic, medical and health-care research in the last decades, it is vital for the radiologist to discriminate between normal ageing related effects and abnormal imaging findings in the elderly. This article reviews functional and structural aspects of the ageing lung and focuses on typical ageing related radiological patterns.

Key points:

• The physiological aging process of the thoracic organs shows typical structural and functional aspects.

• Mild interstitial fibrosis and focal parenchymal abnormalities like septal thickening can be diagnosed frequently – whereas a clinical correlate is often lacking.

• With increasing patient age, the influence by various intrinsic and extrinsic factors (including comorbidities of the patient, and drug inhalation toxicants) also increases.

• A growing spectrum of imaging techniques (including functional cardiopulmonary MRI, MRI spectroscopy, hybrid-techniques) is confronted by rare empiric data in the very old people (aging 80 years and older).

Citation Format:

• Schröder TH, Storbeck B, Rabe KF. et al. The Aging Lung: Clinical and Imaging Findings and the Fringe of Physiological State. Fortschr Röntgenstr 2015; 187: 430 – 439

Zusammenfassung

Der demografische Wandel ist in den letzten Jahrzehnten zunehmend in den Fokus sozioökonomischer, medizinischer und versorgungsrelevanter Forschungen getreten. Dabei steht der klinische Radiologe durch vermehrten Einsatz von Schnittbildverfahren auch in der Thoraxradiologie einer Grauzone zwischen „Zufallsbefunden“ und „Frühformen klinisch-relevanter Lungenerkrankungen“ gegenüber. Das Wissen um die Grenzen zwischen physiologischen, alterungsbedingten Veränderungen des Thorax im Alter auf der einen und bereits klinisch-relevanten pathologischen Veränderungen auf der anderen Seite, ist Fokus dieses Artikels.

Key words

ageing lung - thoracic imaging - elderly - geriatric medicine

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