Thin slice CT study of solitary pulmonary nodules with emphasis on the relation to vasculatures

Thin (2 mm) and thick (10 mm) slice X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning was performed in 49 and 31 patients, respectively, to assess the morphology of solitary pulmonary nodules or masses and to determine the relationship between the tumor and surrounding vasculature. When the pulmonary vein passed singly into the tumor or was larger than the artery (pattern I), 38 of 40 nodules (95%) were malignant (p less than 0.001). When the pulmonary artery passed singly into the tumor or was larger than the vein (pattern II) and when no pulmonary vessel passed into the tumor but when a pulmonary vessel was compressed by the tumor or passed through it (pattern III), only 11 of 19 nodules (58%) were malignant. Based on the morphology and vasculature patterns the accuracy of diagnosis with thin slice CT was 80.9% while that of thick slice CT was 67.7%. Thin slice CT can increase the diagnostic accuracy of primary lung cancer.