Resolved
Read Your Scan Editorial Team·Last updated
Written from published radiology references and reviewed for plain language. Not written or signed by a physician, and not a diagnosis. How we write these pages →
In plain language
Something that was visible on an earlier scan can no longer be seen. Radiologists use it for things that were expected to go away — an infection, a collection of fluid, a bruise.
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Where you'll see this
Follow-up impressions.
Your report may word it “Resolution”, “Near-complete resolution” or “Interval resolution”. These mean the same thing.
Questions worth asking your doctor
- Compared with my last scan, is this better, worse, or the same?
- How much change would matter enough to do something about it?
- When should the next scan be, and what would you be looking for?
How often does this turn up?
Resolved means something previously seen is no longer there. It belongs to the comparison vocabulary and appears mainly on follow-up studies — after a chest infection, after an injury, after treatment. It is the most straightforwardly good word in a radiology report.
Does it mean something is wrong?
There is very little to read into. Resolution is what treatment and time are supposed to produce, and confirming it is often the entire point of the follow-up scan. The one nuance is that resolved describes what is visible: something no longer seen on imaging is not always the same as a process entirely finished, which is why follow-up after some infections continues clinically even once the images have cleared. Where a report says partially resolved, that is exactly what it sounds like and usually means continuing whatever was working.
What to do with it
Usually the end of the episode as far as imaging is concerned. A chest X-ray confirming a pneumonia has resolved typically closes that chapter; failure to resolve as expected is what would prompt a different explanation being sought. Resolution is also the answer that retrospectively confirms a diagnosis — something that cleared with treatment was what the treatment was for.
Frequently asked questions
- Does resolved mean completely gone?
- It means no longer visible on this examination. For most purposes that is the same thing, though imaging resolution is not always identical to a process being entirely over — which is why some conditions are followed clinically as well.
- Why do I need a scan to confirm something resolved?
- Because failure to resolve as expected is informative. An area that has not cleared on the timescale it should have needs a different explanation, and finding that out is the purpose of the follow-up rather than confirming good news.
- What does partially resolved mean?
- That it has improved but not disappeared. It usually means continuing the current approach and reassessing, and it is a normal intermediate stage rather than a failure.
Comparison with an earlier scan
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