Anterior upper lobe sign (usual interstitial pneumonia)

Last revised by Frank Gaillard on 29 Nov 2023

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Gaillard F, Anterior upper lobe sign (usual interstitial pneumonia). Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 30 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-179616

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-179616

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/179616

rID:

179616

Article created:

27 Nov 2023, Frank Gaillard ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Frank Gaillard had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Frank Gaillard's current disclosures

Last revised:

29 Nov 2023, Frank Gaillard ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Frank Gaillard had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Frank Gaillard's current disclosures

Revisions:

1 time, by 1 contributor - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Chest

Sections:

Signs

The anterior upper lobe sign is an HRCT finding usually seen in the setting of usual interstitial pneumonia. It represents fibrosis primarily in the anterior aspect of both upper lobes, sparing the rest of the upper lobes while coexisting with concurrent involvement of the lung bases ^1-3.

In the context of usual interstitial pneumonia, the presence of the anterior upper lobe sign, along with the exuberant honeycombing sign and the straight-edge sign, has a fairly high specificity but moderate sensitivity for being the result of connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD) rather than idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) ^1,3.