Lung Calcifications in X-ray Diagnosis.

Abstract

Anne Morrow Lindbergh once said that one cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. She might have been speaking about pulmonary calcifications before Salzman published this book. He has performed a valuable service for those who study chest roentgenograms by collecting mundane and exotic examples of pulmonary calcification from medical centers throughout the world. He has correlated them with existing knowledge of etiologic diseases. The author divided his material into calcifications occurring in lung parenchyma, hilar structures, and pleura, and concludes with a brief chapter on differential diagnosis. It is possible to extract much clinical information from calcification patterns in the lungs. Awareness of these configurations permits estimation of pathogenesis, duration, and identification of many different disorders. The author's succinct style and thoughtful selection of representative roentgenograms, which are faithfully reproduced, are to be commended.