Hl. Kundel et al., Reliability of soft-copy versus hard-copy interpretation of emergency department radiographs: A prototype study, AM J ROENTG, 177(3), 2001, pp. 525-528
Citations number
13
Categorie Soggetti
Radiology ,Nuclear Medicine & Imaging","Medical Research Diagnosis & Treatment
OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic reliabil
ity of hard-copy and soft-copy interpretation of radiographs obtained in th
e emergency department using a methodology for evaluating imaging systems w
hen independent proof of the diagnosis is not available.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. We collected radiographs from a stratified sample of
100 patients seen in the emergency department. The images were obtained us
ing computed radiography, and the digital images were printed on film and s
tored for display on a workstation. A group of seven experienced radiologis
ts reported the cases using both film and the workstation display. The resu
lts were analyzed using mixture distribution analysis (MDA).
RESULTS. The reliability expressed as the percentage of agreement of a typi
cal observer relative to the majority was computed from the MDA. The result
was 90% for both hard copy and soft copy with bootstrap confidence interva
ls of 86-94%.
CONCLUSION. We conclude that, in the emergency department, soft-copy interp
retation is as reliable as hard-copy interpretation. The strength of this c
onclusion depends on the validity of the MDA approach as well as the extent
to which the observer sample and case sample are representative of the eme
rgency department.