title: Area--a consistent method to evaluate pulmonary tumor size on multidetector CT imaging: an intraobserver and interobserver agreement study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the agreements of unidimensional, bidimensional, area and volume measurements of pulmonary tumors on multidetector computed tomography (MDCT), and to determine which method is the most reliable one.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty patients with pulmonary tumors were enrolled in this study, which referred to undergo thoracic MDCT in our hospital. Four radiologists evaluated dimensions of pulmonary tumor independently, including length, width, height, area and volume. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) were both used to evaluate the variability between the repeat readings of the same scan.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The ICCs and CCCs of the intraobserver were both higher than interobserver's (ICC intra vs. inter: 0.984 vs. 0.947 and CCC intra vs. inter: 0.993 vs. 0.943). Area of intraobserver ICC (ICC=0.992, P<.001) and CCC (CCC=0.997, P<.001) both had the best agreements of the six methods. Among the interobserver ICCs and CCCs, area (ICC=0.981, P<.001 and CCC=0.982, P<.001) was also the best of the six methods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Area measurement on MDCT is the most reproducible method that measures tumor dimension accurately.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1095# Jiefang Ave, Wuhan, Hubei, 430030,PR China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wenzhen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Zhongqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Jianfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Daoyu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Chengyuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Liming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D061827:Dimensional Measurement Accuracy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D061330:Multidetector Computed Tomography; D015588:Observer Variation
keywords: Area; Bidimensional; Pulmonary tumor; Unidimensional; Volume