[Computed tomography and pneumoconioses]. / Tomografia assiale computerizzata e pneumoconiosi.

In the last two decades the use of Computed Tomography (CT) has played an important role in the diagnosis of pneumoconioses because of its spatial resolution and lack of technical limitations if compared to traditional chest radiography, first of all in the early stages. Nevertheless the staging of these diseases is still based on the International Labour Office (ILO) classification issued in 1980, whose application is obtained comparing radiographical findings with a standard set of radiographs provided by ILO itself. Starting from the early nineties many studies attempted to propose a classification system similar to the ILO one, combining different symbols to describe a CT thoracic finding or introducing a "score system" to classify different CT patterns (fibrosis, pleural plaques, etc.) and their severity. Despite these efforts no classification system has been accepted yet. After a short description of technical and practical issues of using CT in the diagnosis of pneumoconioses, this article aims at summarizing different classification attempts.