Lung CT stabilization with high-frequency non-invasive ventilation (HF-NIV) and breath-hold (BH) in lung nodule assessment by PET/CT

Abstract Purpose To evaluate the effect of lung stabilization using high-frequency non-invasive ventilation (HF-NIV) and breath-hold (BH) techniques on lung nodule detection and texture assessment in PET/CT compared to a free-breathing (FB) standard lung CT acquisition in PET/CT. Materials and methods Six patients aged 65 ± 7 years, addressed for initial assessment of at least one suspicious lung nodule with 18F-FDG PET/CT, underwent three consecutive lung PET/CT acquisitions with FB, HF-NIV and BH. Lung nodules were assessed on all three CT acquisitions of the PET/CT and characterized for any size, volume and solid/sub-solid nature. Results BH detected a significantly higher number of nodules (n = 422) compared to HF-NIV (n = 368) and FB (n = 191) (p