INTERPRETATION TIME OF SERIAL CHEST CT EXAMINATIONS WITH STACKED-METAPHOR WORKSTATION VERSUS FILM ALTERNATOR

PURPOSE: Interpretation time of serial staging chest CT cases, which e ach contained current and previous examinations, with a simple prototy pe workstation called filmstack was experimentally compared with inter pretation time with a film alternator. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The film stack displayed a ''stack'' of,sections for each examination; user con trols allowed rapid selection of preset attenuation windows and both s ynchronized and unsynchronized scrolling. Eight radiologists were time d as they used the filmstack and the film alternator to interpret four ergonomically complex serial CT cases. RESULTS: All reports dictated on the basis of findings with filmstack and film were of acceptable cl inical accuracy. The time to examine a case with filmstack was signifi cantly faster than the time with film, including the time to load and unload the alternator (99% confidence [P = .01]). There was no statist ically significant difference in interpretation time between filmstack and prehung film. CONCLUSION: Use of a low-cost stacked CT workstatio n with a single 1,024 x 1,024 monitor is an effective means of interpr eting cases that require comparison of multiple CT examinations.