Diagnosis and accuracy of test

There are actually many diagnosis you might have to take, as mesothelioma patients, but the affirming, and best confirmatory mesothelioma diagnosis is tissue biopsy. Listed below are some of the diagnostic procedures a mesothelioma doctor will recommend, and the conclusions of such procedures.

X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs

Using conventional x-ray film, mesothelioma cancers show as a thick, and irregular pleural-based deposition that covers the surface of the pleural. The mesothelioma cancers usually engulfs the lung involved, but is not commonly seen on both sides. There could be mesothelioma cancers invasion seen on the chest wall, diaphragm, and mediastine in severe cases. There is usually normal, or abnormal pleural effusion seen at the side affected the most. Using CT scan, the thickening of the pleural is more than 1 cm, and it is usually diagnosed in more than 90% cases; pleural thickening that spreads to the interlobular fissure is observed in about 85% cases. When there is no pleural thickening, then that doesn't avert mesothelioma cancers, and sometimes, pleural effusion is the only thing that CT finds.