Preliminary study of visualizing membrane structures of spiculated pulmonary nodules in three-dimensional thoracic CT images

Abstract

Research results from the National Lung Screening Trial revealed that screening for lung cancer with low-dose CT (LDCT) reduces lung cancer mortality in heavy smokers by 20% compared to radiography. While this study does show the efficacy of CT-based screening, radiologists often face the problem of estimating the malignant likelihoods of pulmonary nodules detected on LDCT screening for maximizing patient survival and for preserving lung function. Spiculation is considered as one of the indicators of nodule malignancy and an important feature to assess requirements on a patient-tailored follow-up procedure. However, the spiculation is also observed in some benign nodules, particularly in tuberculoma. The elucidation of the spliculation morphology in 3D thoracic CT images is an important preliminary step towards developing the malignant discrimination strategies from benign nodules. In this study, we present a visualization method to reveal a spatial configuration of spiculation of pulmonary nodules in three-dimensional thoracic CT images. Applying the method to an example of malignant nodule with the spiculated margins, the visualizing preliminary result of the spatial configuration reveals the presence of membrane structures of spiculation.