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Performance of a Previously Validated CT Colonography Computer-Aided Detection System in a New Patient Population

¹ Diagnostic Radiology Department, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bldg. 10, Rm. 1C368X MSC 1182, Bethesda, MD 20892-1182.
² Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.

OBJECTIVE. A computer-aided detection (CAD) system with high sensitivity in the detection of adenomatous polyps in varied CT colonography (CTC) data sets increases the utility of CAD in the clinical setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the standalone performance of an existing CAD system with a new set of CTC data from screening patients at an institution and geographic location different from those at which the CAD system was trained.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. CTC data were collected from the records of 104 patients undergoing screening for colorectal neoplasia. Most of the patients were at average risk, had CTC findings suggestive of polyps, and underwent colonoscopy. Patients underwent cathartic bowel preparation, were given an oral contrast agent, and underwent imaging in the prone and supine positions. The patients had 86 adenomas confirmed at same-day optical colonoscopy; 47 of these tumors were 10 mm in diameter or larger, and 39 measured 6–9 mm. The CTC data were analyzed with an existing CAD system for colonography that was trained with previously acquired data. In a previous non-polyp-enriched screening cohort, the standalone performance of the CAD system was 93.3% (28/30) sensitivity for adenomatous polyps 10 mm or larger, 51.1% (47/92) sensitivity for adenomas 6–9 mm, and a mean false-positive rate of 8.6 per patient. Sensitivity comparisons were made with findings in the previous study.

RESULTS. The CAD system had per-polyp sensitivities of 91.5% (43/47; 95% CI, 78.7–97.2%; p = 1.0) for adenomas 10 mm or larger and 82.1% (32/39; 65.9–91.9%; p = 0.0009) for adenomas 6–9 mm. The per-patient sensitivities were 97.6% (40/41; 85.6–99.9%; p = 0.6) for patients with adenomas 10 mm or larger and 82.4% (28/34; 64.8–92.6%; p = 0.047) for patients with adenomas 6–9 mm. The mean and median false-positive rates were 9.6 ± 9.6 and 7.0 per patient, respectively. Common reasons for CAD misses (false-negative findings) were the presence of adherent contrast medium, flat adenomas, and adenomas located on or adjacent to normal colonic folds. In a random sample, 72.5% (29/40) of false-positive findings were attributable to folds or residual feces.

CONCLUSION. The CAD system evaluated has a high level of performance in the detection of adenomatous polyps with CTC data from a polyp-enriched cohort different from that used to train the system.

Keywords: automated detection • colon • colon cancer • CT • image processing • virtual imaging

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