Pulmonary nodule size evaluation with chest tomosynthesis and CT: a phantom study.

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Medical Imaging
• Thoracic Imaging

Background:

• Accurate nodule size assessment is crucial for diagnosis and treatment planning.
• Simple radiography has limitations in evaluating nodules in certain thoracic regions.
• Advanced imaging modalities are needed to overcome these limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the accuracy of digital tomosynthesis (TOMO) and chest computed tomography (CT) in measuring nodule sizes.
• To evaluate nodule sizes in areas where simple radiography is limited.

Main Methods:

• Utilized 48 images with phantom nodules of varying sizes and locations.
• Calculated nodule size measurement errors for TOMO and CT compared to actual sizes.
• Assessed inter- and intraobserver repeatability and agreement between TOMO and CT using Bland-Altman analysis.

Main Results:

• Mean measurement errors were -0.84 mm for TOMO and -0.18 mm for CT across all observers.
• Observer-specific mean errors ranged from -1.11 to -0.55 mm for TOMO and -0.39 to 0.08 mm for CT.
• Agreement between TOMO and CT showed a mean error of -0.65 mm with a 95% limit of agreement from -2.53 to 1.22 mm.

Conclusions:

• Nodule sizes measured by TOMO and chest CT are comparable.
• Both TOMO and CT can be used interchangeably for nodule size assessment.
• This comparability extends to nodules in areas difficult to evaluate with simple radiography.