Bubble-like lucency in pulmonary ground glass nodules on computed tomography: a specific pattern of air-containing space for diagnosing neoplastic lesions

To investigate the computed tomography (CT) characteristics of air-containing space and its specific patterns in neoplastic and non-neoplastic ground glass nodules (GGNs) for clarifying their significance in differential diagnosis. From January 2015 to October 2022, 1328 patients with 1,350 neoplastic GGNs and 462 patients with 465 non-neoplastic GGNs were retrospectively enrolled. Their clinical and CT data were analyzed and compared with emphasis on revealing the differences of air-containing space and its specific patterns (air bronchogram and bubble-like lucency [BLL]) between neoplastic and non-neoplastic GGNs and their significance in differentiating them. Compared with patients with non-neoplastic GGNs, female was more common (P < 0.001) and lesions were larger (P < 0.001) in those with neoplastic ones. Air bronchogram (30.1