What does “Focal” mean on a radiology report?
Concentrated in one specific area (opposite of diffuse).
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General explanations of common wording, not advice about your own scan. Ask the doctor who ordered it what your results mean for you.
What Radily gives back
Your chest CT report says
Scattered ground-glass opacities are noted in the bilateral upper lobes measuring up to 8mm. No consolidation, pleural effusion, or pneumothorax.
Radily explains
Your scan shows some small hazy areas in the upper part of both lungs. There is no solid patch of the kind pneumonia makes, no fluid around the lungs and no collapsed lung.
Ask your doctor: what might be causing the hazy areas, and do I need a follow-up scan?
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Does this mean something is wrong?
Not on its own. A radiology report describes what the images show, in language written for the doctor who ordered the scan. One term is rarely the whole picture — what it means for you depends on why you were scanned and what else the report says.
If the report worries you, the person who can actually answer that is the doctor who referred you. Understanding the words first usually makes that conversation a better one.
Want your whole report explained?
One term is a start. Radily reads your full report and explains it in plain English — and can talk you through it on video, so you are not reading medical language alone.
Other general terms
- AbnormalitySomething that deviates from what is normal or expected. In radiology, findings that differ from healthy tissue.
- AcuteRecent or sudden onset. Describes conditions that develop quickly (opposite of chronic).
- AerationThe presence of air in tissue or organs. Normal in lungs, abnormal in other locations.
- AspirationBreathing in foreign material (like food or liquid) into the lungs, or a procedure to remove fluid with a needle.
- BilateralOn both sides of the body.
- CentralLocated in the middle or center of a structure.
This explains a term as it is commonly used in radiology reports. It is not a diagnosis and not medical advice. Discuss your own results with your doctor.