Computer-aided differential diagnosis of small solitary pulmonary nodules.

A new digital processing method was developed to improve the specific diagnosis of small (up to 3 cm) solitary pulmonary nodules on lung tomograms. The proposed method gives advanced imaging of diagnostically important details and structures of the nodule. It helps the physician easily identify known diagnostic features and discover some additional ones that are useful for reliable verification of cancer, tuberculoma, and hamartoma. X-Ray morphological comparison confirmed that all details, displayed on the processed tomogram, corresponded to morphological structures on postsurgical histotopograms. The method can give additional information to data from conventional and computed tomography, especially in the case of small radiographically indeterminate pulmonary opacities.