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Updated: Oct 18, 2025
Author Spotlight: A 3D Digital Model for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pulmonary Nodules
Published on: May 19, 2023
Detectability of Lung Nodules in Ultra-low Dose CT
Sonja Janssen1, Daniel Overhoff1, Matthias F Froelich1
1Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
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.
