Pulmonary metastases. Spiral CT with surgical correlation

Spiral volumetric computed tomography (CT) with single breath-hold technique is clearly sensitive than conventional sequential CT in the detection of pulmonary nodules. The sensitivity of spiral volumetric CT for detection of pulmonary metastases in 27 patients schedule for thoracotomy and curative resection of lesions was evaluated with prospective study. The spiral volumetric CT protocol consisted of a 10 mm/sec table feed during 24-second breath hold with 10-mm section thickness using 360deg linear interpolation (n=13), and 5-mm section thickness using 180deg linear interpolation (n=14). Of 145 resected metastases, 86 (59%) were depicted by spiral volumetric CT. Seventy-four (99%) of 75 large nodules (≥5 mm in diameter) were depicted, however, only 12 (17%) of 70 small nodules (<5 mm in diameter) were depicted by spiral volumetric CT. Future large prospective studies evaluating individual malignancies are needed to assess the impact on long-term survival of early detection of pulmonary metastases with spiral volumetric CT. (author)