The value of low dose CT in early lung cancer screening in asymptomatic healthy patients

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the value of low-dose spiral CT (LDCT) in early lung cancer screening in asymptomatic healthy patients. Methods 3, 730 cases of asymptomatic healthy patients who underwent physical examination in our hospital from January 2016 to December 2017 were selected, all of whom were examined by LDCT and chest X-ray, and the diagnostic accuracy was compared and analyzed to evaluate the practical value of LDCT in early lung cancer screening. Results All subjects successfully completed LDCT scan and chest X-ray screening, and the examination images met the clinical diagnostic criteria. Among the 3 730 patients, 1 112 had LDCT positive lesions, including 2.96% of lung cancer, 8.63% of tuberculosis, 38.31% of nodules, 3.59% of bronchiectasis, 15.82% of emphysema, 10.70% of bullae, 4.13% of inflammation, and 15.82% of others. The pulmonary nodules in 426 cases included 38.26% of inflammatory nodules, 41.31%, of solid nodules and 19.95% of ground glass nodules. Among the 3730 patients, 812 had positive lesions screened by chest X-ray, including 2.95% of lung cancer, 11.20% of tuberculosis, 27.22% of nodules, 3.94% of bronchiectasis, 20.32% of emphysema, 11.94% of bullae, 4.80% of inflammation, and 17.61% of other benign old diseases. The number of positive cases, detection rate and detection accuracy of lung cancer, pulmonary nodules and other diseases in the two groups were compared, showing statistically significant differences(P<0.05), which fully demonstrated that the LDCT group was significantly better than the X-ray chest X-ray screening group, and had good diagnostic value. However, for pulmonary nodules, it is difficult to determine the nature of X-ray chest X-ray screening, only the existence of nodules of sufficient size can be diagnosed, and the size of lesions in other diseases is still the main reason for the low accuracy of X-ray diagnosis. Conclusions LDCT has good diagnostic value in early lung cancer screening in large scale physical examination of patients ≥40 years old. Key words: Low-dose CT; chest X-ray; Lung cancer