Role of high-resolution CT in the diagnosis of small pulmonary nodules coexisting with potentially operable lung cancer.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether high-resolution CT (HRCT) could facilitate the preoperative diagnosis of one or two small nodules of 1 cm or less coexisting with a lung cancer, i.e., coexisting small nodule.


METHODS
This study included 27 coexisting small nodules in 24 potentially operable lung cancer patients. An observer study was performed by five radiologists. The observer performances in differentiating malignant from benign coexisting small nodules were evaluated on conventional CT and HRCT using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.


RESULTS
The area under the ROC curve of five observers was 0.731 on HRCT and 0.578 on conventional CT in the differential diagnosis of coexisting small nodules. A significant diagnostic improvement was found on HRCT (p=0.031). This was especially evident for nodules of ground-glass attenuation (p=0.005).


CONCLUSIONS
HRCT plays an important role in determining the treatment of potentially operable lung cancer patients with coexisting small nodules.
Yuan
Yue
Y
Department of Radiology, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine, Japan.
Matsumoto
Tsuneo
T
Hiyama
Atsuto
A
Miura
Goji
G
Tanaka
Nobuyuki
N
Matsunaga
Naofumi
N
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D012372:ROC Curve; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed