Videotaped helical CT images for lung cancer screening

The goal of this work was to determine a radiologist's ability to detect solitary pulmonary nodules on helical CT using both video (cine) viewing and film-based viewing.

Sixty-five chest helical CT studies were reviewed. Six radiologists searched for 40 lung nodules on CT images presented in three formats. Film-based viewing of images at 10 and 5 mm increments was performed with a light box. Video viewing of the same examinations was performed in 5 mm increments at 2 frames/s. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (Az) measured the observer's ability to detect nodules.

The Az was 0.948 for the video viewing, 0.844 for 5 mm increment film-based viewing, and 0.879 for 10 mm increment film-based viewing. There were no statistically significant differences.

Lung nodules can be detected with similar detection rates when viewing conventional film or videotaped helical CT images. Videotaped images incur a lower cost, an important consideration in mass screening for lung cancer.