ACCURACY OF BEDSIDE CHEST HARD-COPY SCREEN-FILM VERSUS HARD-COPY AND SOFT-COPY COMPUTED RADIOGRAPHS IN A MEDICAL INTENSIVE-CARE UNIT - RECEIVER OPERATING CHARACTERISTIC ANALYSIS

PURPOSE: To compare the clinical diagnostic accuracy of hard-copy read ings of screen-film bedside chest radiographs and both hard-and soft-c opy readings of bedside chest computed radiographs obtained in a medic al intensive care unit. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two samples of 95 cases were assembled from chest images obtained in 541 patients with either screen-film radiography or computed radiography. The cases were strat ified according to the clinical problem for which the examination was ordered; the corresponding diagnosis was verified by a panel of two or three radiologists. Four radiologists blindly read the hard-copy imag es obtained with screen-film or computed radiography. Six months later , the radiologists read the computed radiographs by using an 8-bit, 1, 684 x 2,048-pixel display. The data were analyzed by using multireader -multicase receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of varianc e. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences in the area under the ROC curve were found between any of the methods. CONCLUSION: The results provide some justification for using bedside chest computed ra diography and for reading soft-copy images from a high-quality display .