What does “Age indeterminate” mean on a radiology report?
The scan can see the finding but cannot tell how old it is.
Got the rest of your report in front of you?
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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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Why the radiologist wrote it that way
Some findings look much the same whether they happened last week or ten years ago — certain fractures, some spots in the brain. Rather than guess, the radiologist records that the timing cannot be established from the image.
Is this good or bad news?
Whether this matters depends entirely on the clinical question. If an old scan exists for comparison, it usually resolves the timing immediately. If your symptoms began recently and the finding may be decades old, your doctor needs that distinction — which is why this phrasing exists rather than a guess.
What it does not mean
- That the finding is new. It cannot be dated in either direction.
- That the scan failed. Dating is genuinely not always possible.
Where you will see it
Words in this phrase
One phrase is not the whole report
What this sentence means for you depends on everything else your report says. Radily reads the whole thing and explains it in plain English — and can talk you through it on video, so you are not reading medical language alone.
Other phrases on your report
- Clinical correlation is recommendedThe radiologist is saying: here is what the pictures show, and now the doctor who knows your symptoms needs to decide what it means for you.
- Incidental findingSomething the scan picked up that has nothing to do with the reason you were scanned.
- Consistent withThe appearance fits the named condition — usually one your doctor already suspected.
- Status postSimply means "after". You have had the procedure or operation named.
This explains how a phrase is commonly used in radiology reports. It is not a diagnosis, not a reading of your scan, and not medical advice. Only your doctor can tell you what your own report means.