X-ray diagnosis of radiation injuries of the lung.

The lung tissue, exposed to x-rays of sufficient intensity, eventually show signs, like other tissues, of damage, recognizable by inflammation and subsequently by scarring. Such damage has been known since 1922 and a number of papers testify to the clinical and pathological findings associated with irradiation. Engeistad and Warren and Spencer confirm these findings in histological and experimental investigations. Rather different is the appreciation of the roentgenological picture in cases of radiation injuries of the lung. Observations of 50 cases with lung injuries following postoperative x-ray treatment for carcinoma of breast, led us to the definition of a pathognomic roentgen syndrome, useful in the diagnosis of pulmonary lesions following x-ray treatment for cancer of the breast.