Reporting of perfusion/ventilation lung scintigraphy using an anatomical lung segment chart: a prospective study.
This study prospectively evaluated the effect of the consistent use of a previously described anatomical lung segment chart on the interpretation of lung scans. Simultaneous perfusion/ventilation lung scintigraphy was performed in 221 consecutive patients with clinically suspected pulmonary embolism. Lung scans were immediately reported as normal, high probability or non-diagnostic with the use of an anatomical lung segment chart. After at least 6 months, blinded lung scans were randomly read by a panel of nuclear medicine physicians. Initial lung scan reports were classified as normal, high probability or non-diagnostic in 64, 63 and 94 patients, respectively. Overall observer disagreement was 5.9% (95% confidence interval (CI) 3.2-9.8%), while this was 7.8, 3.2 and 7.9% for lung scans that were initially reported as normal, non-diagnostic and high probability, respectively. Reclassification consisted of normal to non-diagnostic (5), non-diagnostic to normal (1), non-diagnostic to high probability (2), and high probability to non-diagnostic scan results (5). From the literature, an overall disagreement of 20% was expected if no chart had been used. In conclusion, this study confirms that the consistent use of a lung segment chart reduces observer disagreement in the reporting of lung scans.
Van Beek
E J
EJ
Centre for Hemostasis, Thrombosis, Atherosclerosis and Inflammation Research, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Tiel-Van Buul
M M
MM
Hoefnagel
C A
CA
Jagt
H H
HH
Van Royen
E A
EA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011336:Probability; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000145:classification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging / Q000379:methods; D011897:Random Allocation; D013668:Technetium Tc 99m Aggregated Albumin; D014692:Ventilation-Perfusion Ratio
D013668:Technetium Tc 99m Aggregated Albumin