The Clinical Dilemma of Incidental Findings on the Low-Resolution CT Images from SPECT/CT MPI Studies.
Incidental findings are common in medical imaging. There is a particularly high prevalence of incidental findings within the thorax, the most frequent being pulmonary nodules. Although pulmonary nodules have the potential to be malignant, most are benign, resulting in a high number of false-positive findings. Low-resolution CT images produced for attenuation correction of SPECT images are essentially a by-product of the imaging process. The high number of false-positive incidental findings detected on these attenuation-correction images causes a reporting dilemma. Early detection of cancer can be beneficial, but false-positive findings and overdiagnosis can be detrimental to the patient. Attenuation-correction CT images are not of diagnostic quality, and further diagnostic tests are usually necessary for a definitive diagnosis to be reached. Given the high number of false-positive findings, the psychologic effect on the patient should be considered. This review recommends caution when the findings on attenuation-correction CT images are routinely reported.
Directorate of Radiography, School of Health Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom j.coward@salford.ac.uk.
Joanne
J
Coward
Directorate of Radiography, School of Health Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom.
Julie
J
Nightingale
Directorate of Radiography, School of Health Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom.
Peter
P
Hogg
D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D000072098:Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography Computed Tomography
SPECT; low-resolution CT; myocardial perfusion imaging