Reduced-dose CT effectively detects lung nodule in kids and young adults with cancer: Study

Trout and colleagues' prospective study enrolled patients 4-21 years old with known or suspected malignancy who were undergoing clinically indicated chest CT. Study participants underwent an additional investigational reduced-dose chest CT in the same imaging encounter. Three independent radiologists blind-reviewed the separated and deidentified CT examinations, with one radiologist performing a subsequent review to match nodules between the standard- and reduced-dose examinations.

Among the 78 patients (44 male, 34 female; mean age, 15.2 years) with cancer who underwent standard-dose chest CT and reduced-dose chest CT (mean effective dose 0.3 ± 0.1 mSv, representing 83% dose reduction) in the same imaging encounter, the reduced-dose protocol detected greater than 90% of lung nodules identified on the standard-dose examination.

Noting that no prior study has directly compared clinical to reduced-dose CT for detection of lung nodules in children, "reduced-dose CT may be a feasible option for detection of pulmonary metastatic disease in situations in which radiation dose is a primary consideration or as an option to reduce dose in patients undergoing serial chest CT to monitor known disease," the authors of this AJR article concluded.

Reference:

The study titled, "Comparison of 0.3-mSv CT to Standard-Dose CT for Detection of Lung Nodules in Children and Young Adults With Cancer," is published in the American Journal of Roentgenology.