Diameter thresholds for pure ground-glass pulmonary nodules at low-dose CT screening: Chinese experience
Background Limited research exists on screening thresholds for low-dose CT in detecting malignant pure ground-glass lung nodules (pGGNs) in the Chinese population. Materials and methods A retrospective analysis of the Guangzhou Lung-Care programme was conducted, retrieving average transverse diameter, location, histopathology, frequency and follow-up intervals. Diagnostic performances for ‘lung cancers’ were evaluated using areas under the curve (AUCs), decision curve analysis (DCA), sensitivities and specificities, with thresholds ranging from 5 mm to 10 mm. We divide malignant pGGNs into three groups: (1) minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA) and invasive adenocarcinoma (IA), (2) atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH) and adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) and MIA and IA and (3) IA-only. Results In ‘MIA+IA’, increasing the threshold from 5 mm to 8 mm improved specificity (60.97% to 88.85%, p<0.001) and positive predictive values (PPVs; 5.87% to 14.88%, p<0.001), but decreased sensitivity
