Utility of Maximum CT Value in Predicting the Invasiveness of Pure Ground-Glass Nodules

To predict the histologic invasiveness of pure GGNs using the maximum CT value.

One hundred eighty patients underwent a resection of pure GGNs. On preoperative CT imaging studies, we selected the axial section that showed the densest component of each GGN. The CT value was measured using a DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) viewer, excluding portions of vessels and bronchi. The correlation between the CT value and GGN histologic diagnosis was analyzed.

The numbers of patients with atypical adenomatous hyperplasia, adenocarcinoma-in-situ (AIS), minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA), and invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC) were 9, 108, 56, and 7, respectively. One of the IAC tumors exhibited lymphatic invasion, and there were no cases of vascular invasion. In comparison to preinvasive lesions (atypical adenomatous hyperplasia and AIS), invasive lesions (MIA and IAC) were correlated with a higher maximum CT value (-404 ± 113 Hounsfield units [HU] vs. -216 ± 125 HU, P < .01). The cutoff point of maximum CT value was determined at -300 HU using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, and exhibited sensitivity and specificity of 83% and 88%, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that maximum CT value was an independent predictor of histologic invasiveness (odds ratio 39, P < .01). The interobserver reliability was satisfactory (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.738; unweighted kappa-values, 0.722).

IAC and MIA accounted for 4% and 31% of the pure GGN lesions, respectively. Higher maximum CT value (≥ -300 HU) was a useful predictor of histologic invasiveness.