title: Can chest X-rays and ventilation/perfusion scans be interpreted reliably from personal computer screens?
abstract: A computer-based system is routinely used for home reporting of nuclear medicine scans performed out of hours in our unit. To report ventilation/perfusion scans (V/Q) adequately, chest radiographs are also digitized and transferred to the home personal computer. One hundred consecutive V/Q scans and their corresponding chest X-rays were reported on a personal computer and on a lightbox by two radiologists and two nuclear physicians. This study shows that ventilation/perfusion scans can be reliably reported from computer screen images. The loss of data when chest X-rays are digitized to a 512 x 512 matrix, however, results in considerable misinterpretation and the digitized chest X-ray may, at best, be unhelpful and, at worst, result in an incorrect V/Q scan report.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Kent and Canterbury Hospitals NHS Trust, Canterbury, UK.
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Denton
authors.forename: S F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Barrington
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Kettle
authors.forename: I D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: O'Doherty
mesh_terms: D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008838:Microcomputers; D015588:Observer Variation; D010996:Pleural Effusion / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012253:Rib Fractures / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014692:Ventilation-Perfusion Ratio; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging