Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41598306›Full record

ArticleLife (Basel, Switzerland)2026

Low-Dose CT Quality Assurance at Scale: Automated Detection of Overscanning, Underscanning, and Image Noise.

Patrick Wienholt, Alexander Hermans, Robert Siepmann, Christiane Kuhl, Daniel Pinto Dos Santos, Sven Nebelung, Daniel Truhn

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Life (Basel, Switzerland), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Patrick WienholtLab for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany.ORCID 0009-0007-8350-4288
Alexander HermansLab for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2127-0782
Robert SiepmannLab for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-4608-5180
Christiane KuhlDepartment of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-8696-2363
Daniel Pinto Dos SantosDepartment of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-4785-6394
Sven NebelungLab for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-5267-9962
Daniel TruhnLab for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany.

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG (NE 2136/7-1, NE 2136/3-1, TR 1700/7-1)European Union Research and Innovation Programme (ODELIA - GA 101057091)German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (Transform Liver - 031L0312C, DECIPHER-M - 01KD2420B)
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Automated quality assurance is essential for low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung screening, yet manual checks strain clinical workflows. We present a fully automated artificial intelligence tool that quantifies scan coverage and image noise in LDCT without user input. Lungs and the aorta are segmented to measure cranial/caudal over- and underscanning, and noise is computed as the standard deviation of Hounsfield units (HUs) within descending aortic blood, normalized to a 1 mm3 voxel. Performance was verified in a reader study of 98 LDCT scans from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), and then applied to 38,834 NLST scans reconstructed with a standard kernel. In the reader study, lung masks were rated ≥"Nearly Perfect" in 90.8% and aorta-blood masks in 96.9% of cases. Across 38,834 scans, mean overscanning distances were 31.21 mm caudally and 14.54 mm cranially; underscanning occurred in 4.36% (caudal) and 0.89% (cranial). The tool enables objective, large-scale monitoring of LDCT quality-reducing routine manual workload through exception-based human oversight, flagging protocol deviations, and supporting cross-center benchmarking-and may facilitate dose optimization by reducing systematic over- and underscanning.

Indexed as

automated quality assuranceimage noiselow-dose computed tomography (LDCT)lung cancer screeningNational Lung Screening Trial (NLST)overscanningradiation dose optimizationscan coverageunderscanning

Identifiers

PMID41598306
PMCPMC12842913

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.