Comparison of sensitivity of lung nodule detection between radiologists and technologists on low-dose CT lung cancer screening images.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to compare the sensitivity of detection of lung nodules on low-dose screening CT images between radiologists and technologists.


METHODS
11 radiologists and 10 technologists read the low-dose screening CT images of 78 subjects. On images with a slice thickness of 5 mm, there were 60 lung nodules that were ≥5 mm in diameter: 26 nodules with pure ground-glass opacity (GGO), 7 nodules with mixed ground-glass opacity (GGO with a solid component) and 27 solid nodules. On images with a slice thickness of 2 mm, 69 lung nodules were ≥5 mm in diameter: 35 pure GGOs, 7 mixed GGOs and 27 solid nodules. The 21 observers read screening CT images of 5-mm slice thickness at first; then, 6 months later, they read screening CT images of 2-mm slice thickness from the 78 subjects.


RESULTS
The differences in the mean sensitivities of detection of the pure GGOs, mixed GGOs and solid nodules between radiologists and technologists were not statistically significant, except for the case of solid nodules; the p-values of the differences for pure GGOs, mixed GGOs and solid nodules on the CT images with 5-mm slice thickness were 0.095, 0.461 and 0.005, respectively, and the corresponding p-values on CT images of 2-mm slice thickness were 0.971, 0.722 and 0.0037, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Well-trained technologists may contribute to the detection of pure and mixed GGOs ≥5 mm in diameter on low-dose screening CT images.
Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan. rkaki@ncc.go.jp
R
R
Kakinuma
K
K
Ashizawa
T
T
Kobayashi
A
A
Fukushima
H
H
Hayashi
T
T
Kondo
M
M
Machida
M
M
Matsusako
K
K
Minami
K
K
Oikado
M
M
Okuda
S
S
Takamatsu
M
M
Sugawara
S
S
Gomi
Y
Y
Muramatsu
K
K
Hanai
Y
Y
Muramatsu
M
M
Kaneko
R
R
Tsuchiya
N
N
Moriyama
D000368:Aged; D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D003074:Solitary Pulmonary Nodule / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*