Background/aim: Investigation of the influence of different ultra-low dose computed tomography (ULDCT) protocols on the detection of solid and subsolid nodules in a phantom study.
Patients and methods: A chest phantom with pulmonary nodules was scanned with different CT protocols ranging from ultra-low dose settings with spectral shaping to a standard low dose lung cancer screening protocol. Image analysis was performed with different reconstruction algorithms and dedicated computer aided detection (CAD), which was compared to manual readout.
Results: The highest sensitivity rates (83%) were achieved for the 90 mAs and 120 mAs protocols when reconstructed with ADMIRE 3 or 5 and manual readout. The only statistically significant difference was found for subsolid nodules with preference of manual readout compared to CAD (p<0.05). Dose levels for the mAs settings ranged from 0.029 to 0.2 mSv.
Conclusion: Reliable detectability rates for solid nodules were achieved; CAD software did not prove reliable for subsolid nodules.
Keywords: Computed tomography; computer-aided detection; detectability; iterative reconstruction; pulmonary nodules; solid; subsolid; ultra-low dose.
Copyright © 2021 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.