TY - JOUR T1 - The Clinical Dilemma of Incidental Findings on the Low-Resolution CT Images from SPECT/CT MPI Studies JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology JO - J. Nucl. Med. Technol. SP - 167 LP - 172 DO - 10.2967/jnmt.116.174557 VL - 44 IS - 3 AU - Joanne Coward AU - Julie Nightingale AU - Peter Hogg Y1 - 2016/09/01 UR - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/44/3/167.abstract N2 - Incidental findings are common in medical imaging. There is a particularly high prevalence of incidental findings within the thorax, the most frequent being pulmonary nodules. Although pulmonary nodules have the potential to be malignant, most are benign, resulting in a high number of false-positive findings. Low-resolution CT images produced for attenuation correction of SPECT images are essentially a by-product of the imaging process. The high number of false-positive incidental findings detected on these attenuation-correction images causes a reporting dilemma. Early detection of cancer can be beneficial, but false-positive findings and overdiagnosis can be detrimental to the patient. Attenuation-correction CT images are not of diagnostic quality, and further diagnostic tests are usually necessary for a definitive diagnosis to be reached. Given the high number of false-positive findings, the psychologic effect on the patient should be considered. This review recommends caution when the findings on attenuation-correction CT images are routinely reported. ER -