Bone suppression images improve radiologists'performance on detection of lung nodules on chest radiographs / 实用放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the performance of bone suppression images on the detection of lung nodules in comparison with the radiologists'reading results.Methods There were 141 standard posteroanterior digital chest radiographs,which included 95 patients with a solitary nodule and 46 controls.In this observational study,4 observers,including 2 radiologists and 2 residents,in-dicated their confidence level regarding the presence of a nodule for each lung,first by use of standard images,then with the addition of bone suppression images.Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curve analysis was used to evaluate the observers'performance. Results Average nodule size was (1.9±1)cm (range from 0.9 cm to 2.9 cm).The mean value of the area under the ROC curve (AUC)was significantly improved from 0.844 with use of standard images alone to 0.873 with use of bone suppression images (P<0.01).Conclusion The use of bone suppression images can improve radiologists'performance on detection of lung nodules on chest radiographs.