Ultra-low-dose chest computed tomography with model-based iterative reconstruction in the analysis of solid pulmonary nodules: A prospective study

Patrick W O'Regan; Antonia Harold-Barry; Alexander T O'Mahony; Claire Crowley; Stella Joyce; Niamh Moore; Owen J O'Connor; Michael T Henry; David J Ryan; Michael M Maher

doi:10.4329/wjr.v16.i11.668

Ultra-low-dose chest computed tomography with model-based iterative reconstruction in the analysis of solid pulmonary nodules: A prospective study

World J Radiol. 2024 Nov 28;16(11):668-677. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v16.i11.668.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University College Cork, Cork T12 AK54, Ireland. patrickoregan@ucc.ie.
² Department of Radiology, Cork University Hospital, Cork T12 DC4A, Ireland.
³ Department of Radiology, Mercy University Hospital, Cork T12WE28, Ireland.
⁴ Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University College Cork, Cork T12 AK54, Ireland.
⁵ Department of Respiratory Medicine, Cork University Hospital, Cork T12 DC4A, Ireland.

Abstract

Background: Incidental pulmonary nodules are an increasingly common finding on computed tomography (CT) scans of the thorax due to the exponential rise in CT examinations in everyday practice. The majority of incidental pulmonary nodules are benign and correctly identifying the small number of malignant nodules is challenging. Ultra-low-dose CT (ULDCT) has been shown to be effective in diagnosis of respiratory pathology in comparison with traditional standard dose techniques. Our hypothesis was that ULDCT chest combined with model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) is comparable to standard dose CT (SDCT) chest in the analysis of pulmonary nodules with significant reduction in radiation dose.

Aim: To prospectively compare ULDCT chest combined with MBIR with SDCT chest in the analysis of solid pulmonary nodules.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted on adult patients (n = 30) attending a respiratory medicine outpatient clinic in a tertiary referral university hospital for surveillance of previously detected indeterminate pulmonary nodules on SDCT chest. This study involved the acquisition of a reference SDCT chest followed immediately by an ULDCT chest. Nodule identification, nodule characterisation, nodule measurement, objective and subjective image quality and radiation dose were compared between ULDCT with MBIR and SDCT chest.

Results: One hundred solid nodules were detected on ULDCT chest and 98 on SDCT chest. There was no significant difference in the characteristics of correctly identified nodules when comparing SDCT chest to ULDCT chest protocols. Signal-to-noise ratio was significantly increased in the ULDCT chest in all areas except in the paraspinal muscle at the maximum cardiac diameter level (P < 0.001). The mean subjective image quality score for overall diagnostic acceptability was 8.9/10. The mean dose length product, computed tomography volume dose index and effective dose for the ULDCT chest protocol were 5.592 mGy.cm, 0.16 mGy and 0.08 mSv respectively. These were significantly less than the SDCT chest protocol (P < 0.001) and represent a radiation dose reduction of 97.6%.

Conclusion: ULDCT chest combined with MBIR is non-inferior to SDCT chest in the analysis of previously identified solid pulmonary nodules and facilitates a large reduction in radiation dose.

Keywords: Adult human; Computed tomography methods; Radiation dosage; Solid pulmonary nodules; Ultra-low dose computed tomography.