Virtual colonoscopy (also known as CT colonography or CTC) is currently used for detecting polyps but not for diagnosing them, said presenter Kenji Suzuki, PhD. After detection on CTC, patients undergo a colonoscopy to resect the polyps.
Unfortunately, more than half of polyps surgically removed during colonoscopy procedures are benign. In a bid to reduce unnecessary colonoscopy and polypectomy, the Chicago researchers developed a CADx scheme for distinguishing neoplastic (malignant) from nonneoplastic (benign) polyps.
They then conducted an observer performance study, which found that CAD improved the diagnostic performance of the three radiologists participating in the study.
"The implications of the results are there is a possibility that CTC, which is currently considered and used as a detection modality, is used as a diagnostic tool, and use of our CADx scheme improves the diagnostic performance of the radiologist and adds a diagnosis function to CTC to reduce 'unnecessary' resections of polyps," Suzuki said.
