“Atherosclerotic calcifications involving the coronary arteries. And atherosclerotic calcifications also noted involving the thoracic aorta.”

(Never mind the glaring “typo”, Coble.)

Neither of the example sentences reports severity. If a finding is important enough to report, then it’s important enough to characterize. If it’s not important enough to characterize, reporting it isn’t likely to be helpful. (What is the ordering physician going to do about “atherosclerotic calcifications also noted involving the thoracic aorta”?)

Writing “atherosclerotic calcifications” in successive sentences makes more work for the reader. Frequently such sentences can be combined. For example: Atherosclerotic calcifications involving the coronary arteries and thoracic aorta.

It’s clear the interpreting physician made and reported the first observation, and then made and reported the next finding. It’s an easy way to dictate, but authors should try to make things easy for the reader not for themselves.

With regard to the phrase …involving the thoracic aorta:

It’s a chest CT. Just saying “aorta” is good enough. (If you are making an observation of the upper abdominal aorta on a chest CT, then say “upper abdominal aorta” or “suprarenal abdominal aorta”.  In the example sentence, the adjective “thoracic” is a waste of syllables. Use those syllables for something more informative like “ascending” or “descending”. Or “mild”, “moderate”, “severe”.

Also, i don’t think i ever see arterial calcification in the chest that isn’t atherosclerotic, We can safely eliminate this 6-syllable adjective in most cases.

-don’t need to say “noted” since the radiology report is a note.

-“involving” (used in both of the example sentences) can usually be avoided. For example: “Atherosclerotic aortic calcifications” instead of “Atherosclerotic calcifications involving the aorta.”

Potential rewrite of the example sentences: Mildly calcified coronary arteries and ascending aorta.

Compared to the example sentences the edited version is shorter, easier to read, and more complete (includes severity and location).