Significant Number Of Misses and Mistakes May Occur When Radiologists Increase Reporting Speeds.

A study published by Sokolovskaya et al in the Journal of the American College of Radiology a significant amount of misses and major reporting errors occur when radiologists increase imaging reporting speeds.

The authors selected a sample set of 53 abdominal-pelviic CT scans of variable complexity that were performed at a teaching hospital. They classified the CT scans into 4 categories based on their level of complexity, with level 4 representing the most-complex cases. Five attending radiologists participated in the study. Radiologists were randomly assigned a set of 12 studies, of varying complexity, to dictate at their normal speed, and a separate set of 12 studies, of similar complexity, to read at a speed that was twice as fast as their normal speed.

Reading at the faster speed resulted in more misses for 4 of the 5 radiologists. The total number of major misses for the 5 radiologists, when they reported at the faster speed, was 16 of 60 reported cases, versus 6 of 60 reported cases at normal speed; P = .032. The average interpretation error rate of major misses among the 5 radiologists reporting at the faster speed was 26.6%, compared with 10% at normal speed.

The authors report a significant positive correlation between faster reading speed and the number of major misses and interpretation errors.

J Am Coll Radiol. 2015 Jul;12(7):683-8

Cardiac CT as effective as TEE in predicting recurrent strokes

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is the imaging modality of choice in the detection of source of emboli in patients with ischemic stroke.  Cardiac CT is just as effective at predicting recurrent strokes, according to a study published in Radiology.

Lee et al analyzed the studies of 548 consecutive patients, 374 of whom had ischemic stroke (254 men and 120 women, with a mean age of 63.1 years) who underwent TEE and cardiac CT. TEE and cardiac CT images were assessed for cardioembolic sources, including thrombus, tumor, spontaneous echo contrast, valvular vegetation, atrial septal aneurysm, patent foramen ovale, and aortic plaque. The primary end point was stroke recurrence.

Twenty-eight of the patients had stroke recurrence in the two-year period following their initial strokes. The researchers analyzed the information from their scans and found that complex aortic plaque was associated with increased risk of recurrence.  

Cardiac CT was equally as effective as TEE as a predictive tool for recurrent strokes.