Development and Evaluation of Stereographic Display for Lung Cancer Screening

Abstract

Abstract : The main purpose of this project is to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of using a stereo display workstation for lung cancer screening on CT images. The tasks included in this project are development and evaluation of stereo image projection and display for chest CT images observer performance evaluation for the stereo display and stereo feature analysis and comparison to the conventionally used display methods for lung cancer detection. In the previous report period we have built a stereo display workstation for chest CT images and conducted a pilot observer performance study. In this annual report period we have continued the study based on the projected tasks as listed below. 1. Analyzing the results from the pilot study: we applied Free-response Receiver Operating Characteristic (FROC) statistic method to analyze the data from the pilot study for lung nodule detection and classification. Results indicate that the stereo display achieved the best performance followed by the slice-by-slice display and the conventional MIP display gave the worst performance although there is no statistically significant difference between the three display modes. Subjective assessment indicates that the stereo display was well accepted by the radiologists. Efficiency measurement indicates that the radiologists spent the least interpretation time with the stereo display when compared to the other two display modes. Further analysis of the radiologists' interpretation patterns indicates that novelty and training effect substantially influenced the radiologists' interpretation behavior and performance. The conclusion from the preliminary results is that we have observed a potential role of stereo display for improving radiologists' performance in medical detection and diagnosis and also observed some factors likely affecting the performance with new display such as novelty training effect and confidence with the new technology including the stereo display.