Explain CT Scan Results

Hello @anhydrouschloride and welcome to Mayo Connect, a community of patients and caregivers who support one another with similar health conditions. Industrial exposure, especially long ago, is such a nasty surprise as we age. Things we never thought twice about - asbestos dust, paper dust, chemicals... can all come back to bite us as we get older.
Interpretation of scans and x-rays is best left to the health professionals, who have the scan in front of them, your full medical history and perhaps prior scans for comparison.
Can you call the practitioner who ordered the scan for a better explanation?
Sue

I went to my yearly Appointment I was told at my appt, chest X-ray was normal .No active COPD and or any disease.I ask how is that possible and ask to have a CT test done as none of my X-ray had supposedly shown anything but normal (2020 CT showed Occasional tiny calcified granuloma noted at the lungs along with minor linear atelectatic change and/or scar at the lung bases. After he told me he would not send me "I quote because of radiation exposure", I responded I will accept the risk. No was all he said. I decided to go to the clinic I had my x-ray done. I collected my 4 chest x-rays on a cd and went home to view them. I was shocked by the results, I could see the right lung had a partial collapse in my 2019 x-ray. In my 2023 x-ray you could see the change(i could tell in my total volume from PFT test) On 2020 xray report stated perihilar peribronchial thickening unchanged from 2019.
But 2019 reported Normal chest examine. I am not looking to be diagnosed just a simple question.
My question is how often can you have a chest/lung CT scan safely done.

I would like to know too

There is a radiation burden for CT scans, but modern machines have cut that far below earlier ones. The answer to "... how often can you have a chest/lung CT scan safely done..." is in the words of my pulmonologist, "as often as medically necessary, balancing the probability of finding answers against the risk of exposure."

Many of us with active lung disease may end up with 3-4 scans per year in early stages, fewer as we become stable. When first diagnosed, I had 3 in a year, cut back to 2 per year until stable. My pulmo would like no more that one every three years now unless there is evidence of progression - either by exacerbations or on an x-ray.

If you want to learn about how diagnosis of COPD and Bronchiectasis and the differences between them, is done by the top experts in the field, I strongly recommend this (long) webinar recording from NTMir.org in recognition of World COPD day in 2023:

Hi Sue,
I have a update, occupational doctor Niels Koehncke
now believes I have RADS not COPD after latest PFT test.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10619325/
This since my accident on Sept 11, 2018 is the only thing that
has made any sense. In the last year my breathing has changed.
I have SOB only when I do extreme exercise for example, I shovel
dirt / snow. In 2018 / 2019 had to used steroids or Ventolin to control
my breathing now I only use oxygen 2.0 liters at night or after severe
SOB attack. They still will not give me a CT scan, it has now been 5
years since my last CT so I have no idea if calcified granuloma have
increased or grown. They are still in limbo what tests to do next.
So will update when I find out more.

RADS?????????? I would insist on a CT scan of the chest and if the physician is not willing to do that then find another. Any lung issues warrant a thorough and detail evaluation of the lungs and respiratory system.

"as often as medically necessary, balancing the probability of finding answers against the risk of exposure."
That is a great answer.
CT scans, like any radiation exposure, are not great for your body. However they do provide information about physical stuff inside your body. You don't want to have CT scans unless there is a real need to get that information.
A Radiologist can look at a CT scan of a "Normal" person and they find things that they describe using scary words. It is their job to find and describe everything. Nobody has the perfect lungs of a baby, probably not even a baby. I made the mistake of reading my radiologist reports a couple times. All that did was lead me to ask my oncologist about each finding and learn that many were not concerning. I was basically wasting our time together and I did not want to do that. They told me about the findings that were significant. Now I don't even bother to read the reports. My doctors read them and interpret for me and that works great.