Performance of ultralow-dose CT with iterative reconstruction in lung cancer screening: limiting radiation exposure to the equivalent of conventional chest X-ray imaging

Abstract

Introduction

The Use of Model-based Iterative Reconstruction to Optimize Chest CT Examinations for Diagnosing Lung Metastases in Patients with Sarcoma

“…However, the edge spreading in the MBIR images was inferior compared to the FBP and ASIR images in air plugs (simulating cavity-like metastases, small cysts, or centrilobular emphysemas) vs lung tissue boundaries. This observation may support previous findings of inferior detection of small ground-glass nodules in the lungs with MBIR (17,30,31). Furthermore, the regularization in MBIR may result in highly nonstationary noise in the images, specifically at the contrast edges (34).…”

“…However, for characterizing ground-glass opacities and emphysemas, LD levels are clearly inferior to standard-dose levels. Similarly, Huber et al (30) reported a drop of sensitivity for the detection of small (5 mm) groundglass nodules. According to their results, however, the smallest ground-glass nodules were still better visualized than the comparatively sized solid nodules.…”

Prospective intra-individual comparison of standard dose versus reduced-dose thoracic CT using hybrid and pure iterative reconstruction in a follow-up cohort of pulmonary nodules—Effect of detectability of pulmonary nodules with lowering dose based on nodule size, type and body mass index

“…It is important to be aware that in pursuit of low dose, one must not compromise on diagnostic quality. Recent study in chest phantom examining detectability of lung nodule at chest radiograph equivalent dose has shown overall detection rates of 93.3% with DLP: 9 mGy cm [25]. Their detection rates for small 5 mm solid nodules were 83.9% using iterative reconstruction.…”

Advances in the management of osteosarcoma

“…Ultralow-dose CT, which limits radiation exposure to the equivalent of chest X-rays in two planes, has shown promise for lung cancer screening 72 , so this may change should further studies demonstrate benefits for this technique in the follow-up of bone sarcoma.…”