Advances in differential diagnosis of pulmonary ground glass opacity on high resolution computed tomography and histopathology

Abstract Pulmonary ground glass opacity (GGO) is increasingly detected through the advances made in diagnostic technology, in particular computed tomography (CT). There are those who fear GGO because some patients with GGO are diagnosed with lung cancer. There is indeed some connection between GGO and lung cancer, but GGO does not necessarily deteriorate into tumors. There are many causes of GGO, such as hemorrhage, inflammation or tumors, and GGO with different pathological types also have different CT characteristics. Diagnosis of GGO affects clinical treatment decisions, whether these GGO should be surgically resected or require regular follow-up. This article introduces the differential diagnosis of GGO from the perspective of high-resolution CT (HRCT) imaging and histopathology characteristics.