Low-Dose Lung CT

Low-dose CT of the chest at LUX MED Diagnostyka Warsaw for early lung cancer screening and pulmonary nodule detection. HRCT (high-resolution CT) protocol available for interstitial lung disease evaluation. No contrast required. Physician referral required under Polish law.

Low-dose chest CT at LUX MED Diagnostyka's Kasprzaka 17 Warsaw centre delivers a detailed volumetric image of the lung parenchyma, airways, and mediastinum using a radiation dose substantially lower than that of a standard diagnostic chest CT. The reduced dose is achieved through optimised tube current and iterative reconstruction algorithms that maintain diagnostic image quality while minimising the patient's cumulative radiation exposure. LUX MED Diagnostyka offers two principal chest CT protocols in Warsaw. The first is low-dose CT (LDCT), which is the recommended screening tool for early lung cancer detection in high-risk individuals — specifically adults aged 50 to 80 with a significant smoking history (at least 20 pack-years) who are current smokers or have quit within the past 15 years. Multiple large randomised trials, including the National Lung Screening Trial in the United States and the NELSON trial in Europe, have demonstrated that annual LDCT screening in this population reduces lung cancer mortality by 20 to 24 percent by detecting malignancy at stage I or II when surgical resection remains curative. The second protocol is HRCT (high-resolution CT), which uses thin-slice acquisition and a high-spatial-frequency reconstruction kernel to produce images with exceptional detail of the lung microstructure — bronchiolar walls, intra-lobular septa, and alveolar architecture. HRCT is the investigation of choice for diagnosing and characterising interstitial lung diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, sarcoidosis, and pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis. It is also used to assess bronchiectasis morphology, emphysema distribution, and small airway disease. Neither protocol requires intravenous contrast or pre-scan fasting. Patients should avoid strenuous exercise for several hours beforehand and remove any metallic items from the chest area before scanning. The examination itself takes only a few minutes in the scanner. Breath-hold instructions are given by the radiographer to minimise respiratory motion. Results are reported by a LUX MED Diagnostyka specialist radiologist and returned via Portal Pacjenta within the standard window. The reporting radiologist characterises any pulmonary nodules using the Lung-RADS or Fleischner Society classification to guide follow-up recommendations — a standardised approach that reduces unnecessary biopsies for benign findings while flagging high-risk nodules for expedited follow-up or biopsy. All CT studies in Poland require a physician referral under the national Atomic Law statute. Patients who do not already have a referral can obtain one rapidly from a private GP; LUX MED's own network of over 10,000 physicians across more than 300 facilities can issue referrals on the same day.