FRIDAY, Sept. 24 (HealthDay News) -- The use of a low-radiation dose digital tomosynthesis (DTS) technique appears to be more effective in detecting lung lesions among patients with pulmonary mycobacterial disease than conventional radiography, according to a study in the October issue of Radiology.
Eun Young Kim, M.D., of the Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues evaluated 100 patients (65 study patients and 35 control patients) who underwent multidetector computed tomography (CT), chest radiography, and low-dose DTS (effective doses, 3.4, 0.02, and 0.05 mSv, respectively). Two radiologists evaluated the radiographs and DTS images.
The investigators found that the accuracy in identifying mycobacterial disease was 97 percent with DTS and 89 percent with radiography for the first radiologist, and 99 and 93 percent, respectively, for the second radiologist. The respective accuracies of DTS and radiography in identifying each lesion type were 95 and 77 percent for bronchiolitis, 92 and 76 percent for nodules, 86 and 79 percent for consolidation, and 93 and 70 percent for cavities. Of a total of 141 cavities identified with CT, the two radiologists detected a mean of 27 cavities with chest radiography and 108 cavities with DTS.
"In conclusion, the use of a low-dose DTS technique is superior to the use of radiography for the detection of lung lesions, especially cavitary lesions, in patients with pulmonary mycobacterial disease," the authors write.
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