Appearances of pulmonary focal lesions at 0.5-mm slice thickness computed tomography: comparison with 1-mm slice thickness computed tomography

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the validity of 0.5-mm thin-section computed tomography (CT) for the assessment of pulmonary nodular lesion in comparison with 1-mm CT. Materials and Methods: A total of 38 focal lesions from 30 patients, which were scanned with 0.5- and 1.0-mm collimation, were evaluated regarding the extent of ground-glass opacity (GGO) and well-defined margin, and the presence of pleural indentation, spicula, and internal air density. The frequency of each finding was statistically compared between 0.5- and 1-mm CT using the McNemar test. Results: No statistically significant difference was observed between 0.5- and 1-mm CT for each finding. Conclusion: The use of 0.5-mm CT is not justified if the original collimation of multi-detector row CT is near 1 mm. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.