Medical software developer Blackford Analysis announced that PACS integrated with its automatic alignment technology deliver significant time-savings when matching lung nodule locations across current and prior chest CT exams. Preliminary results indicate a time saving of greater than 50% with automatic deformable alignment over manual alignment of current and priors.
The Stony Brook study, which will be published later this year, retrospectively identified 27 subjects from Stony Brook Medical Center with nodules in two chest CTs within three years. The study measured the time taken for board-certified radiologists to match each of the 112 nodules in prior exams to the same location in current exams in PACS using two volume alignment methods: Manual Rigid, where the radiologist synchronized scrolling manually at the most superior slice where air was visible in the right lung and Automatic Deformable, where Blackford Analysis’ PACS-integrated software performed automatic deformable alignment of current and prior chest CT exams.
Preliminary results show that automatic deformable alignment provided by Blackford Analysis significantly reduces lung nodule location matching time when compared with conventional manual slice synchronization. Preliminary data has shown that automatic deformable alignment can reduce location match time by greater than 55% compared to manual alignment.
