Consensus of experts on the technical specification of chest CT examination of pneumoconiosis (2020 edition)

High kV chest X-ray radiographs are a compulsory tool for the diagnosis and staging of pneumoconiosis stipulated by the Diagnosis of occupational pneumoconiosis (GBZ 70-2015) in China, and often combine with computed tomography (CT) examination for further differential diagnosis. However, chest CT examination for pneumoconiosis requires standardized technical guidance. Thus, the Group Standards Committee of the China Health Inspection Association approved the application of the Institute of Occupational Health and Poison Control of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a guideline for chest CT assisting examinations of pneumoconiosis patients. Under the direction of the Pneumoconiosis Imaging Group of Occupational Diseases Professional Committee of Chinese  Preventive Medicine Association, the "Consensus of experts on the technical specification of chest CT examination of pneumoconiosis (2020 edition)" was drafted. Given the particularity of pneumoconiosis examination, the configurations of CT machines and auxiliary equipment were specified. To obtain high-quality images, specific requirements were made for the scanning and image reconstruction parameters such as preparation before scanning and image slice thickness. Based on the fact that CT outputs digitized images, image post-processing methods were addressed. To achieve standardized big data, the archiving of image data was detailed. For convenient application, the evaluation method of CT image quality was established.