The Fate of Patients with Solitary Pulmonary Nodules: Clinical Management and Radiation Exposure Associated

BACKGROUND: The appropriate management of the large number of lung nodules detected during the course of routine medical care presents a challenge. We aimed to evaluate the usual clinical practice in solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) management and associated radiation exposure. METHODS: We examined 893 radiology reports of consecutive patients undergoing chest computed tomography (CT) and radiography at two public hospitals in Spain. Information on diagnostic procedures from SPN detection and lung cancer diagnosis was collected prospectively for 18 months. RESULTS: More than 20% of patients with SPN detected on either chest radiograph (19.8%) or CT (26.1%) underwent no additional interventions and none developed lung cancer (100% negative predictive value). 346 (72.0%) patients with SPN detected on chest radiograph and 254 (61.5%) patients with SPN detected on CT had additional diagnostic tests and were not diagnosed with lung cancer. In patients undergoing follow-up imaging for SPNs detected on CT median number of additional imaging tests was 3.5 and the mean cumulative effective dose was 24.4 mSv; for those detected on chest radiograph the median number of additional imaging tests was 2.8 and the mean cumulative effective dose was 10.3 mSv. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who did not have additional interventions were not diagnosed of lung cancer. There was an excessive amount of interventions in a high percentage of patients presenting SPN, which was associated with an excess of radiation exposure.