Computer-aided nodule detection system: results in an unselected series of consecutive chest radiographs

Abstract

Rationale and objectives: To evaluate the performance of a computer-aided detection (CAD) system with bone suppression imaging when applied to unselected consecutive chest radiographs (CXRs) with computed tomography (CT) correlation.

Materials and methods: This study included 586 consecutive patients with standard or portable CXRs who had a chest CT scan on the same day. Among the 586 CXRs, 438 had various abnormalities, including 46 CXRs with 66 lung nodules, and 148 CXRs had no significant abnormalities. A commercially available CAD system was applied to all 586 CXRs. True nodules and false positives (FPs) marked on CXRs by the CAD system were evaluated based on the corresponding chest CT findings.

Results: The CAD system marked 47 of 66 (71%) lung nodules in this consecutive series of CXRs. The mean FP rate per image was 1.3 across all 586 CXRs, with 1.5 FPs per image on the 438 abnormal CXRs and 0.8 FPs per image on the 148 normal CXRs. A total of 41% of the 752 FP marks were related to non-nodule pathologic findings.

Conclusions: A currently available CAD system marked 71% of radiologist-identified lung nodules in a large consecutive series of CXRs, and 41% of "false" marks were caused by pathologic findings.

Keywords: Lung nodule; chest computed tomography (CT); chest radiography (CXR); computer-aided detection (CAD); lung abnormality.