[Conventional roentgen examination of the lung in fibrosing alveolitis--correlation with histological, clinical and biochemical findings].

Question: Is it possible to draw conclusions on aetiology, histology or clinical course, looking at the different radiomorphologic appearance and its changes in chest x-rays of patients with "fibrosing alveolitis"?

Material And Method: Retrospective correlation of chest x-rays with all relevant clinical and histological data of 33 patients.

Results: In all patients typical clinical signs with changes of lung function and typical histological changes were found. There was no strict correlation between single parameters and radiological findings. In the estimation of the clinical course, no correspondence between radiological findings and clinical data was found in only 18% of the parameters.

Conclusion: The chest x-ray is an objective investigation which clearly shows the course of fibrosing alveolitis beside its undisputed function in diagnosing acute complications like infiltration, effusion or development of pneumothorax.