Volumetric measurement of pulmonary nodules at low-dose chest CT: effect of reconstruction setting on measurement variability
Open Access
- 18 November 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in European Radiology
- Vol. 20 (5), 1180-1187
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-009-1634-9
Abstract
Objective To assess volumetric measurement variability in pulmonary nodules detected at low-dose chest CT with three reconstruction settings. Methods The volume of 200 solid pulmonary nodules was measured three times using commercially available semi-automated software of low-dose chest CT data-sets reconstructed with 1 mm section thickness and a soft kernel (A), 2 mm and a soft kernel (B), and 2 mm and a sharp kernel (C), respectively. Repeatability coefficients of the three measurements within each setting were calculated by the Bland and Altman method. A three-level model was applied to test the impact of reconstruction setting on the measured volume. Results The repeatability coefficients were 8.9, 22.5 and 37.5% for settings A, B and C. Three-level analysis showed that settings A and C yielded a 1.29 times higher estimate of nodule volume compared with setting B (P = 0.03). The significant interaction among setting, nodule location and morphology demonstrated that the effect of the reconstruction setting was different for different types of nodules. Low-dose CT reconstructed with 1 mm section thickness and a soft kernel provided the most repeatable volume measurement. Conclusion A wide, nodule-type-dependent range of agreement between volume measurements with different reconstruction settings suggests strict consistency is required for serial CT studies.This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
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