Experimental lung nodule model: CT numbers, nodule size, and actual calcium content.

An experimental pulmonary nodule model was developed to study the effect of nodule size, nodule environment, and calcium content on the attenuation values in two computed tomography (CT) scanners. The experimental results show that (a) calcium is the moiety most responsible for the CT number, (b) small nodules may have falsely low CT numbers, (c) CT numbers vary from scanner to scanner when scanning the same nodule, and (d) higher CT numbers are obtained when experimental nodules are scanned in air rather than water.