Black pleura sign (lungs)

Last revised by Mohamed Saber on 29 Dec 2020

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

V U, Saber M, Shah V, et al. Black pleura sign (lungs). Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 19 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-16251

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-16251

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/16251

rID:

16251

Article created:

3 Jan 2012, Umamaheswara Reddy V

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Umamaheswara Reddy V had no recorded disclosures.

View Umamaheswara Reddy V's current disclosures

Last revised:

29 Dec 2020, Mohamed Saber ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Mohamed Saber had no recorded disclosures.

View Mohamed Saber's current disclosures

Revisions:

10 times, by 9 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Chest

Tags:

stub

Synonyms:

Black pleural sign
Black pleural line

The black pleura sign is a feature described in pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis. It is seen as a strip of tangential peripheral lucency underlying the ribs as compared to the adjacent diffusely dense calcified lung.

Although termed black pleura, it actually represents subpleural sparing of pulmonary calcification that occurs in the alveoli centrally within the secondary pulmonary lobules. It was initially described on plain radiographs as a means of identifying alveolar microlithiasis, but is also demonstrated on chest CT.