Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Best CT scan settings to find lung nodules in dogs
By Joly, Hugo et al.·Published in Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association·2009·Companion Animal Research Group, Canada·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Comparison of single-slice computed tomography protocols for detection of pulmonary nodules in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
Two dogs, weighing 4 kg and 38 kg, were examined for lung nodules using a special type of X-ray called computed tomography (CT). The study tested different settings on the CT machine to see which worked best for finding these nodules. It was found that using a narrow slice width significantly improved the ability to detect the nodules, while other settings like pitch and reconstruction interval had less impact. The results suggest that for dogs, using a narrow collimation of 3-5 mm is the best approach for identifying lung nodules.
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Abstract
Two dogs (4 and 38 kg) with radiographic evidence of pulmonary nodules were evaluated using single-slice, helical computed tomography (CT). Each thorax was scanned using 12 combinations of examination parameters that included slice collimation width (3 and 5mm for the small dog and 5 and 7mm for the large dog), pitch (1, 1.5, and 2), and reconstruction interval (0.5 and 1). Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for nodule detection were evaluated for each protocol by three different observers, their results being compared with a consensus evaluation of images acquired with the protocol providing the best theoretic resolution (narrow collimation, pitch of 1, reconstruction interval of 0.5). For all observers, sensitivity and accuracy were significantly increased when using a protocol with narrow collimation (P < 0.0001-0.005 and P = 0.0003-0.005, respectively). Pitch and reconstruction interval did not significantly influence the accuracy, sensitivity, or specificity for at least two of the observers. Additionally, nodule size (< 3mm vs. > 3mm) did not significantly affect nodule detection. Interobserver repeatability was variable among protocols (K = 0.32-0.78), highlighting the fact that nodule detection may be more dependent on the observer than on the choice of the CT protocol. For single-slice CT, the results of this study suggest that narrow collimation (3-5 mm, depending on the animal's size), a pitch of 2 and a reconstruction interval of 1 should be used in dogs for the detection of pulmonary nodules.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19507391/