Quantitation of pulmonary nodule's border structure by means of Fourier transform by using chest X-ray CT images

In order to evaluate quantitatively the border structure of pulmonary nodules by using chest X-ray CT images, we investigated whether the sum of high-frequency elements of the power spectrum in a Fourier-transformed nodule's contour line becomes a valuable measure of the border structure of pulmonary nodules. We expect that this measure clearly reflects the radiologic characteristics of a nodule, that is, the contour line is clear or unclear in benign or malignant nodules, respectively. We evaluated and analyzed images statistically for 31 patients (15 benign, 16 malignant), and we were able to recognize a measurable difference between the benign and malignant cases. We conclude that we can evaluate the border structure of a nodule by our proposed measure, and that this measure is valuable for quantitative differential diagnosis. (author)