The accuracy of gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance pulmonary angiography and magnetic resonance venography for diagnosing pulmonary embolism has not been determined conclusively.
To investigate ...performance characteristics of magnetic resonance angiography, with or without magnetic resonance venography, for diagnosing pulmonary embolism.
Prospective, multicenter study from 10 April 2006 to 30 September 2008.
7 hospitals and their emergency services.
371 adults with diagnosed or excluded pulmonary embolism.
Sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios were measured by comparing independently read magnetic resonance imaging with the reference standard for diagnosing pulmonary embolism. Reference standard diagnosis or exclusion was made by using various tests, including computed tomographic angiography and venography, ventilation-perfusion lung scan, venous ultrasonography, d-dimer assay, and clinical assessment.
Magnetic resonance angiography, averaged across centers, was technically inadequate in 25% of patients (92 of 371). The proportion of technically inadequate images ranged from 11% to 52% at various centers. Including patients with technically inadequate images, magnetic resonance angiography identified 57% (59 of 104) with pulmonary embolism. Technically adequate magnetic resonance angiography had a sensitivity of 78% and a specificity of 99%. Technically adequate magnetic resonance angiography and venography had a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 96%, but 52% of patients (194 of 370) had technically inadequate results.
A high proportion of patients with suspected embolism was not eligible or declined to participate.
Magnetic resonance pulmonary angiography should be considered only at centers that routinely perform it well and only for patients for whom standard tests are contraindicated. Magnetic resonance pulmonary angiography and magnetic resonance venography combined have a higher sensitivity than magnetic resonance pulmonary angiography alone in patients with technically adequate images, but it is more difficult to obtain technically adequate images with the 2 procedures.
The solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) is frequently encountered on chest imaging and poses an important diagnostic challenge to clinicians. The differential diagnosis is broad, ranging from benign ...granulomata and infectious processes to malignancy. Important concepts in the evaluation of SPNs include the definition, morphologic characteristics via appropriate imaging modalities, and the calculation of pretest probability of malignancy. Morphologic differentiation of SPN into solid or subsolid types is important in the choice of follow-up and further management. In this first part of a two-part series, we describe the morphologic characteristics and various imaging modalities available to further characterize SPN. In Part 2, we will describe the determination of pretest probability of malignancy and an algorithmic approach to the diagnosis of SPN.
The Early Lung Cancer Action Project (ELCAP) is designed to evaluate baseline and annual repeat screening by low-radiation-dose computed tomography (low-dose CT) in people at high risk of lung ...cancer. We report the baseline experience.
ELCAP has enrolled 1000 symptom-free volunteers, aged 60 years or older, with at least 10 pack-years of cigarette smoking and no previous cancer, who were medically fit to undergo thoracic surgery. After a structured interview and informed consent, chest radiographs and low-dose CT were done for each participant. The diagnostic investigation of screen-detected non-calcified pulmonary nodules was guided by ELCAP recommendations, which included short-term high-resolution CT follow-up for the smallest non-calcified nodules.
Non-calcified nodules were detected in 233 (23% 95% CI 21-26) participants by low-dose CT at baseline, compared with 68 (7% 5-9) by chest radiography. Malignant disease was detected in 27 (2·7% 1·8–3·8) by CT and seven (0·7% 0·3–1·3) by chest radiography, and stage I malignant disease in 23 (2·3% 1·5–3·3) and four (0·4% 0·1–0·9), respectively. Of the 27 CT-detected cancers, 26 were resectable. Biopsies were done on 28 of the 233 participants with non-calcified nodules; 27 had malignant non-calcified nodules and one had a benign nodule. Another three individuals underwent biopsy against the ELCAP recommendations; all had benign non-calcified nodules. No participant had thoracotomy for a benign nodule.
Low-dose CT can greatly improve the likelihood of detection of small non-calcified nodules, and thus of lung cancer at an earlier and potentially more curable stage. Although false-positive CT results are common, they can be managed with little use of invasive diagnostic procedures.
To assess the frequency with which a particular, possibly optimal work-up of noncalcified nodules less than 5.0 mm in diameter identified on initial computed tomographic (CT) images at baseline ...screening leads to a diagnosis of malignancy prior to first annual repeat screening, compared with a possibly optimal work-up of larger nodules.
Two series of baseline CT screenings in high-risk people were retrospectively reviewed. The first series (n = 1,000) was performed in 1993-1998; the second (n = 1,897), in 1999-2002. In each series, cases in which the largest noncalcified nodule detected was less than 5.0 mm in diameter and those in which it was 5.0-9 mm were reviewed to determine whether diagnostic work-up prior to first annual repeat screening showed or would have shown nodule growth and led or would have led to a diagnosis based on biopsy or surgical specimens.
The frequency with which malignancy was or could have been diagnosed when the largest noncalcified nodule was less than 5.0 mm in diameter was 0 of 378, whereas when the largest noncalcified nodule was 5.0-9 mm in diameter, the frequency was 13 or 14 of 238. If persons with only nodules smaller than 5.0 mm had merely been referred for first annual repeat screening without immediate further work-up, the referrals for such work-up would have been reduced by 54% (from 817 28% to 385 13% of 2,897).
In modern CT screening for lung cancer at baseline, detected noncalcified nodules smaller than 5.0 mm in diameter do not justify immediate work-up but only annual repeat screening to determine whether interim growth has occurred.
As an emerging clinical syndrome, our knowledge of the clinical, pathologic and radiologic features of electronic-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury is evolving. CT appearances are described ...in six cases imaged at our institution (NYU Langone Health, New York) in the cluster of 2019.
Approach to Peribronchovascular Disease on CT Ko, Jane P.; Girvin, Francis; Moore, William ...
Seminars in ultrasound, CT, and MRI,
06/2019, Letnik:
40, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Diseases that are predominantly peribronchovascular in distribution on computed tomography by definition involve the bronchi, adjacent vasculature, and associated lymphatics involving the central or ...axial lung interstitium. An understanding of diseases that can present with focal peribronchovascular findings is useful for establishing diagnoses and guiding patient management. This review will cover clinical and imaging features that may assist in differentiating amongst the various causes of primarily peribronchovascular disease.
To compare the performance of radiologists and of a computer-aided detection (CAD) algorithm for pulmonary nodule detection on thin-section thoracic computed tomographic (CT) scans.
The study was ...approved by the institutional review board. The requirement of informed consent was waived. Twenty outpatients (age range, 15-91 years; mean, 64 years) were examined with chest CT (multi-detector row scanner, four detector rows, 1.25-mm section thickness, and 0.6-mm interval) for pulmonary nodules. Three radiologists independently analyzed CT scans, recorded the locus of each nodule candidate, and assigned each a confidence score. A CAD algorithm with parameters chosen by using cross validation was applied to the 20 scans. The reference standard was established by two experienced thoracic radiologists in consensus, with blind review of all nodule candidates and free search for additional nodules at a dedicated workstation for three-dimensional image analysis. True-positive (TP) and false-positive (FP) results and confidence levels were used to generate free-response receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plots. Double-reading performance was determined on the basis of TP detections by either reader.
The 20 scans showed 195 noncalcified nodules with a diameter of 3 mm or more (reference reading). Area under the alternative free-response ROC curve was 0.54, 0.48, 0.55, and 0.36 for CAD and readers 1-3, respectively. Differences between reader 3 and CAD and between readers 2 and 3 were significant (P < .05); those between CAD and readers 1 and 2 were not significant. Mean sensitivity for individual readings was 50% (range, 41%-60%); double reading resulted in increase to 63% (range, 56%-67%). With CAD used at a threshold allowing only three FP detections per CT scan, mean sensitivity was increased to 76% (range, 73%-78%). CAD complemented individual readers by detecting additional nodules more effectively than did a second reader; CAD-reader weighted kappa values were significantly lower than reader-reader weighted kappa values (Wilcoxon rank sum test, P < .05).
With CAD used at a level allowing only three FP detections per CT scan, sensitivity was substantially higher than with conventional double reading.
To determine the precision of a three-dimensional (3D) method for measuring the growth rate of solid and subsolid nodules and its ability to detect abnormal growth rates.
This study was approved by ...the Institutional Research Board and was HIPAA compliant. Informed consent was waived. The growth rates of 123 lung nodules in 59 patients who had undergone lung cancer screening computed tomography (CT) were measured by using a 3D semiautomated computer-assisted volume method. Clinical stability was established with long-term CT follow-up (mean, 6.4 years±1.9 standard deviation; range, 2.0-8.5 years). A mean of 4.1 CT examinations per patient±1.2 (range, two to seven CT examinations per patient) was analyzed during 2.4 years±0.5 after baseline CT. Nodule morphology, attenuation, and location were characterized. The analysis of standard deviation of growth rate in relation to time between scans yielded a normative model for detecting abnormal growth.
Growth rate precision increased with greater time between scans. Overall estimate for standard deviation of growth rate, on the basis of 939 growth rate determinations in clinically stable nodules, was 36.5% per year. Peripheral location (P=.01; 37.1% per year vs 25.6% per year) and adjacency to pleural surface (P=.05; 38.9% per year vs 34.0% per year) significantly increased standard deviation of growth rate. All eight malignant nodules had an abnormally high growth rate detected. By using 3D volumetry, growth rate-based diagnosis of malignancy was made at a mean of 183 days±158, compared with radiologic or clinical diagnosis at 344 days±284.
A normative model derived from the variability of growth rates of nodules that were stable for an average of 6.4 years may enable identification of lung cancer.
A new classification of lung adenocarcinoma has been proposed recently-the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer/American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society ...classification. Abundant information from recent lung cancer computed tomography (CT) screening programs has increased our understanding of the strong, although imperfect, correlation between histologic findings of lung adenocarcinoma and subsolid pulmonary nodules on CT, including both "pure" ground-glass nodules (GGNs) and "part-solid" GGNs. Moreover, serial CT imaging has demonstrated stepwise progression of these nodules in a subset of patients, characterized by increase in size and density of GGNs and development of a solid component. Given the higher incidence of malignancy and the considerably lower growth rate of subsolid nodules, dedicated standardized guidelines for management of these nodules have been proposed, including long-term (≥3 y) CT follow-up using a low-dose technique. Radiologists should be familiar with the new terminology of lung adenocarcinomas and strategic management of subsolid pulmonary nodules.
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