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The British Thoracic Society has published new comprehensive guidelines for the management of pulmonary nodules. These guidelines are significantly different from those previously published, as they use two malignancy prediction calculators to better characterize the risk of malignancy. There are recommendations for a higher nodule size threshold for follow-up (≥5 mm or ≥80 mm(3)) and a reduction of the follow-up period to 1 year for solid pulmonary nodules; both of these will reduce the number of follow-up CT scans. PET-CT plays a crucial role in characterization also, with an ordinal scale being recommended for reporting. Radiologists will be the key in implementing these guidelines, and routine use of volumetric image-analysis software will be required to manage patients with pulmonary nodules correctly.

Original publication

DOI

10.1259/bjr.20150776

Type

Journal article

Journal

Br J Radiol

Publication Date

2016

Volume

89

Keywords

Disease Management, Humans, Lung, Lung Neoplasms, Multidetector Computed Tomography, Multimodal Imaging, Multiple Pulmonary Nodules, Positron-Emission Tomography, Societies, Medical, Solitary Pulmonary Nodule, Tomography, X-Ray Computed, United Kingdom