[Clinical evaluation of life size image of Fuji computed radiography for detection of diffuse interstitial lung diseases]

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Fuji Computed Radiography (FCR) in the detection of interstitial pulmonary infiltrates, FCR life-size images at a pixel size of 0.1 mm were compared with conventional radiographs taken on the same day. Seventeen radiologists assessed the radiographs and FCR images of 56 cases, including 39 cases of various interstitial lung diseases such as interstitial pneumonia, pulmonary abnormalities associated with collagen disease, sarcoidosis, multiple pulmonary metastases, diffuse panbronchiolitis and pulmonary emphysema, and 17 normal controls. All of the pulmonary abnormalities were confirmed by high resolution CT. Observer performance tests were carried out using receiver operating characteristic analysis. In 21 cases of increased pulmonary density revealed by high resolution CT, FCR was significantly superior to conventional radiographs in the detection of reticular or linear shadows. In 11 cases of subtle interstitial abnormalities, there was no difference between FCR and conventional radiographs in the detection of any pulmonary abnormality, ground-glass opacities and reticular or linear shadows. There was also no difference between the two images in the detection of diffuse nodular shadow and pulmonary emphysema. These results indicate that FCR life-size images at a pixel size of 0.1 mm are useful for the detection of diffuse interstitial lung diseases.