Objective To analyze the effectiveness of low-dose chest spiral CT combined with MR-DWI in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant pulmonary nodules.Methods A total of 96 patients with pulmonary nodules admitted to the Central Health Center of Nigou Town,Taierzhuang District,Zaozhuang City from October 2022 to October 2023 were selected as the research subjects.All patients underwent low-dose chest spiral CT scanning and MR-DWI examination,and the pathological examination results were used as the"gold standard"to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of low-dose chest spiral CT scanning combined with MR-DWI.Results Among 96 patients with pulmonary nodules,47 cases were malignant by pathological examination.The sensitivity and accuracy of low dose chest spiral CT combined with MR-DWI in differentiating benign and malignant pulmonary nodules were 97.87%and 97.92%significantly higher than that of single diagnosis(P<0.05).The incidence of irregular shape,burr sign,lobular sign,vascular cluster sign and pleural depression in malignant pulmonary nodules was higher than that in benign pulmonary nodules(P<0.05).Conclusion The combination of low-dose chest spiral CT scan and MR-DWI has good diagnostic efficacy in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant pulmonary nodules,with high sensitivity,accuracy,and negative predictive value,and high consistency with pathological examination results,significantly superior to individual diagnostic methods.