Study Syllabus for Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses
Radiograph Classification
Subset 1
Section 3: Pleural Abnormalities
3A. Any Classifiable Pleural Abnormalities?
You must check “YES” or “NO”
If “YES”, complete Sections 3B, 3C, and 3D;
If “NO”, proceed to Section 4.Before discussing the conventions for reporting pleural abnormalities, please note that these conventions may require you to report in several different blocks (as if they were unrelated findings) the different borders created by what may appear in fact to be simply an extended zone of pleural thickening curving around the convexity of the chest.
3B. Pleural Plaques (Radiographs #15 to #17)
Circumscribed Pleural Thickening (Plaque)
A circumscribed area of pleural thickening is termed a plaque. Pleural plaques may occur along the right and left hemidiaphragms, on the chest wall, or at other sites. They may be seen along the lateral chest wall ‘in profile’, or may be visible ‘face on’, when present on the anterior or posterior chest walls. These hyaline plaques usually result from thickening of the parietal pleura and when seen in profile appear as soft tissue elevations (sometimes with squared-off borders), often along one or both hemidiaphragms. The presence of plaque and calcification within plaques are recorded separately for the right and left sides.
Pleural plaques may also be seen in other sites, such as the mediastinal pleura in paraspinal or paracardiac locations.