Medical imaging of the lungs is important because they are one of the commonest sites for disease in the body. While the body is at rest, the lungs exchange up to 5 L of air per minute, and this may contain pathogens and other potentially harmful elements (e.g., allergens). Techniques to visualize the lung range from plain chest radiographs to high-resolution computed tomography (CT), which enables precise localization of a lesion within the lung.
In the clinic