title: Size quantification of liver metastases in patients undergoing cancer treatment: reproducibility of one-, two-, and three-dimensional measurements determined with spiral CT.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the reproducibility of one-, two-, and three-dimensional measurements of the size of liver metastases.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sizes of 10 liver metastases were determined 200 times: Ten observers measured each lesion by using images obtained at two different CT studies and with five different measurement techniques (maximum diameter, product of diameters, area, volume, and product of three diameters). They repeated each measurement in a separate session. The influence of measurement technique and lesion type (size and morphologic appearance) on measurement reproducibility was assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three-dimensional measurements proved to be as reproducible as one- and two-dimensional measurements. Measurement reproducibility was influenced mainly by the size (P < .0001) and morphologic appearance (P < .01) of the lesions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Three-dimensional size measurements obtained with spiral CT are reproducible and could therefore replace the two-dimensional measurements of tumor size currently obtained with follow-up CT studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Hospitals, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van Hoe
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Van Cutsem
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vergote
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Baert
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bellon
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dupont
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marchal
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods