Usefulness of thin-sliced computed tomography imaging in staging of lung cancer

The staging of lung cancer is an important step for the selection of appropriate treatment. Both pleural invasion and pleural dissemination are the most important factors in the determination of clinical initial staging. The accurate diagnosis of either pleural invasion or pleural dissemination of lung cancer is not always possible with conventional CT (slice thickness: 10 mm). Thin-slice CT (slice thickness: 2 mm) with high resolution image has a great advantage to diagnose the diseases that affect the pleura. To evaluate the usefulness of thin-sliced CT in detection of either pleural invasion or pleural dissemination of lung cancer, we performed a prospective study on 35 patients with lung cancer. Both thin-sliced CT and conventional CT images were examined by extended scale (window level: -600, window width: 1900), using high resolution image. Comparison of diagnoses based on the findings of the thin-sliced CT and pathologic examination showed that the thin-sliced CT was more accurate in diagnosis of either pleural invasion or pleural dissemination than the conventional CT. This leads to the conclusion that thin-sliced CT may play an important role in the initial staging of lung cancer. (author)