[Computed tomography in lung cancer--technique and quality].
BACKGROUND
There are indications that more patients with lung cancer should be offered surgical treatment. The percentage of surgically treated patients varies from one region of Norway to the other. The Cancer Registry of Norway has received CT examinations from lung cancer patients who were not operated. Differences in examination technique and quality were evaluated.


METHODS
Thoracic CT examinations from 42 patients (9 women) from 32 institutions were evaluated by three radiologists with regard to technique and quality.


RESULTS
Twenty-seven examinations (63%) were considered acceptable for evaluation of operability, while 15 (37%) were not. The proportion of adequately performed examinations was higher with helical CT (22 out of 25 examinations, 88%) than with conventional, axial scanning (5 out of 17 examinations, 29%). There were substantial variations in scanning technique (area, collimation, contrast medium, algorithms, and photographic documentation). The majority (n = 40) of investigations were performed with intravenous contrast medium, two without. Contrast medium enhancement and vascular visualisation was judged as insufficient in seven examinations.


CONCLUSIONS
Many examinations were of suboptimal quality, inadequate for pre-operative tumour staging. Several different examination techniques were documented.
Berstad
Audun E
AE
Radiologisk avdeling, Rikshospitalet, Oslo. audun.berstad@rh.uio.no
Kolbenstvedt
Alf
A
Aaløkken
Trond Mogens
TM
Naalsund
Anne
A
Rostad
Hans
H
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards