Correlation in high resolution computed tomography signs with pathological subtype and differentiation degree of lung adenocarcinoma

To study the relationship between high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) signs and the pathological subtypes and differentiation degree of lung adenocarcinoma.

We retrospectively reviewed HRCT images of 394 lung adenocarcinoma cases and compared the diversity of images among preinvasive lesions (PILs), minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA) and invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC) and the differentiation degrees of IAC by Kruskal-Wallis and χ2 tests.

There were significant differences in the size, density and incidences of the pleura traction sign, spicule sign, lobulation sign, tumor vascular sign, bronchial cutoff sign, air bronchogram sign and cavity sign of PILs, MIA and IAC (χ2=2.172~247.077, P<0.05). The incidences of all these signs (except for the cavity sign) in IAC were higher than those in the other two groups (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in margin irregularity or vacuole signs among PILs, MIA and IAC (P>0.05). There were significant differences in the size, density, and incidences of margin irregularity, the pleura traction sign, the spicule sign, the lobulation sign, the tumor vascular sign, the bronchial cutoff sign and the cavity sign in the three differentiated subgroups (χ2=6.818~63.331, P<0.05).  No significant differences were found in the air bronchogram sign and vacuole sign among the three differentiated subgroups (P>0.05).

HRCT signs of lung adenocarcinoma are closely related to the pathological subtype and differentiation degree and have great value in helping predict tumor types and devise clinical treatment plans.