Can a radiologist be wrong on CT scan

What an ordeal to be ill away from home. One way to confirm there was an error on CT scan reading is to have your pulmonologist take a look. FWIW, I trust pulmonary for reading the scans more than the radiologists, who are reading and dictating their reports one after another. Mistakes happen. One time my bronchiectasis diagnosis showed up as bronchiolitis, two different things. Very likely a dictating/ transcribing error. Hope you get to the bottom of things.

My bronchiectasis has been around for a while so there's no missing it on scans. When I was first scanned, however, it was characterized to be a slowly resolving pneumonia, when indeed it was bronchiectasis.

@rose0918 I would never say "never" with respect to our bodies and what is possible or impossible. Nor would I assume that the second radiologist was incorrect. After an infection like pneumonia, and a stint in ICU, there is often a lot of residual damage in the lungs. My gut reaction is that it would be possible for the body to "repair" some of that, causing a great deal of variation between scans 6 months apart.

What would I do? Ask my pulmonologist to take both CT scans and submit them for review, comparison and consult with a radiologist they respect. Then ask to meet with the pulmonologist for an explanation.

Have you talked to the pulmonologist about this?

Not saying this is what happened to you but apparently, there is a "pseudobronchiectasis."
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8669592/

@rose0918. Hello! To answer your question, please read my experience. Anyone interested can read my past comments and contributions to this site concerning my approximate one-year journey with progressive ear/throat pain. I STILL do not understand how different ENTs that did the same exact Nasal Endoscopy, could not diagnose an obvious tumor. I finally resorted to a CT scan to which I had to DEMAND. Being in excruciating pain put me in a demanding type of mood! First ENT said I had arthritis! She said this after hurriedly yanking the scope out of my nostril. Arthritis...? "Well, at least she didn't see anything bad," I thought to myself. Yet, the pain kept growing, so I went to another ENT. He did the same scope, then said he did not see anything that would be causing my pain. He suggested I see a therapist! Approximately one year went by, with pain was so bad I was crying. I went to yet another, different ENT, and he did not see anything but put me on antibiotics anyway. The antibiotics did not help at all. Clinging to the hope maybe she was right after all, I went back to the first ENT that said I had arthritis. She scoped me again and this time said I needed my tonsils removed, even scheduling surgery. I learned through research that as we age, our tonsils can atrophy away to basically nothing. That was where my tonsils were at...nothing. MY GP was wringing her hands when I told her to order a CT Scan STAT. Even though I was insured, they all acted like a CT scan was going to take money out of their bank account or something. The results of the CT scan with Contrast came back that I had "Eagles Syndrome." This is where the Styloid Bones are elongated and touch the nerves around the throat area. Mine, they said, were slightly elongated. I am not trying to lay my beliefs on anyone reading this, but my faith in our God is real. I prayed to our Lord Jesus Christ to help me in this situation. The Lord plainly and silently spoke to my heart that I did NOT have Eagles Syndrome. Finally, my GP told me to go to an Indiana University (IU) ENT. "What is the difference" I asked the GP? Just "do it" was the GPs reply. When the IU ENT scoped me--the same exact way the others had--he IMMEDIATELY saw the whitish mass near my vocal cords. Later, the tumor was shown on a screen, and it was HIGHLY VISIBLE. As I said in the beginning of this comment, it is still a mystery how so many different doctors and even a CT scan could all be wrong. If I had listened to them, I would have had a needless surgery to remove nothing (no tonsils left due to age) while a cancerous tumor grew inches below. Or, I would have tried to find a surgeon willing to scrape my Styloid Bones. Or, I would have thought maybe the pain is all in my head...NOT. Or, I had arthritis in my THROAT!!! How many Radiologists read the scan? I am not sure, but even one is enough to read a freaking scan. Without God and his still silent urgings, I would be long gone. Can they get it wrong? You BET! One last rant: It would not hurt to plug the scan or results into AI. AI has been extremely beneficial in so many ways. AI can read a CT scan too. Best wishes to all.

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

I was diagnosed with BE by a local Pulmonologist in October 2022 based on a Chest CT. I had been sick off and on for 8 months at the time. I had a bronchoscopy that showed no infection. I continued to be short of breath and exhausted in spite of using an Acapella twice a day and taking Azithromycin 3 days a week.

In July 2023 I found this group. I started using 7% saline against the advice of my local pulmonologist because he thought it was too harsh. I also quit taking Azithromycin.

I contacted UT Tyler for an appointment. By the time I got in to see Dr. McShane in December 2023 I felt like a different person. She told me that my decisions to start saline and stop Azithromycin were good decisions. I had energy and coughed much less. She did a CT and there was no BE. She compared it to my first CT and said she might be able to see BE one area if she looked real hard but it wasn’t enough. I still have all of the other symptoms so I use saline and do airway clearance daily. I take Mucinex and NAC daily as well.

I still have an annual CT, PFT, bloodwork and do sputum tests if I feel ill. I now see Dr. Diego Maselli at UTSA. Dr. McShane is going to keep tabs on me in her research at the NIH because I’m an anomaly since I have all of the symptoms of BE without CT manifestations. My thought on this is that I caught this early on and thanks to this group learned the standard of care and began doing the recommended things immediately. Did I ever have BE - probably not. Was I on the path to BE - probably so, but proper intervention is keeping it from progressing.

I did 3% saline three times daily and breather twice a day. Once in a while I have a dry cough and use my nebulizer once a day. There are a lot of allergies here in Florida. Everything is blooming now. I always thought I had allergies and took allergy medication for years. I like to believe in miracles because they happen. I had two CT's showing BE and the latest one shows none on report. The pulmonary doctor told me in February no more CT scans and no need to see him. I am now able to do elliptical for 2 miles in 30 minutes and this seems to make me feel good. I have some days where I feel tired and little short of breath but I am 74 years old.