Computerized detection of lung nodules by CT for radiologic technologists in preliminary screening.

In Japan, radiologists and radiologic technologists are endeavoring to improve the quality of lung CT screening. In particular, preliminary screening by radiologic technologists is expected to decrease radiologists' burden and improve the accuracy of CT screening. We considered that an application of computer-aided detection (CAD) would also be as useful in preliminary screening as in the radiologist's regular reading. Our purpose in this study was to investigate the potential of the application of CAD to preliminary screening. CAD software that we developed was applied to 17 lung CT scans that radiologic technologists had pre-interpreted. A radiologist recognized 29 lung nodules from the CT images, whereas radiologic technologists did not recognize 11 of the 29 nodules at their pre-reading. Our CAD software detected lung nodules at an accuracy of 100% (29/29), with 4.1 false positives per case. The 11 nodules that radiologic technologists did not recognize were included in the CAD-detected nodules. This result suggests that the application of CAD may aid radiologic technologists in their preliminary screening.