Chest Imaging

Silo-filler's disease

airway and lung damage in patients who have been exposed to oxides of nitrogen from silage in the closed environment of a silo. Immediately following exposure, patients develop cough and dyspnoea and the chest radiograph remains normal or shows pulmonary oedema. Recovery is rapid but a recrudescence of symptoms develops 23 weeks later. By this time, radiographs show a miliary or diffuse nodular pattern in the lungs. This appearance reflects bronchiolitis obliterans with intraluminal polyps. In some cases, lung opacities may become coarse and confluent, and death may ensue. In the majority of cases, however, there is a progressive clearing of lung opacification without any visible sequelae.

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