[Small pulmonary nodular opacities in inflammatory and granulomatous lung disease (author's transl)].

Small pulmonary nodular opacities are usually visible only due to the summation of several small foci. The size of a single focus and its number per area determine their radiographic appearance either that of small nodular lesions, or of a reticular pattern or of diffus opacification. The small nodular pattern is primarily observed in lung disease beginning in the interstitium rather than the alveoli. Pattern and course of small nodular lung lesions give important differential diagnostic clues.