CT research advances in doubling time of solitary pulmonary nodules

Objective To analyze the doubling time of different pulmonary nodules in HRCT imaging and its value in clinical follow-up management strategy. Methods The key words about "doubling time" "growth rate" "lung nodule" "follow-up management" were searched in both Chinese Database and English Database, such as Wanfang Data, CNKI Data, PubMed and Web of Science. All recently document literatures reported in public during January 1997 to January 2017, and elaborated the relationship of doubling time and lung nodules. Results Different size, density, pathology of solitary pulmonary nodules had different doubling time, and the prognoses were different. The volume or mass doubling time can be used to predict those solitary pulmonary nodules in order to improve the accuracy of early lung cancer and the reasonable formulation of management, which cannot be distinguished with benign and malignant by morphology and function in traditional CT imaging. But the accuracy, method and repeatability of doubling time's measurement can be influenced by lots of factors, different reports had discrepancy. The doubling time was needed to estimate in a suitable way. Conclusions Observing the solitary pulmonary nodules's dynamic changes and detecting the doubling time in a suitable way can help the clinical doctors make an integrated management in order to avoid misdiagnose or overtreatment. Key words: Lung neoplasms; Pulmonary nodules; Doubling time; Growth rating; Tomography, X-ray computed