Can chest X-rays and ventilation/perfusion scans be interpreted reliably from personal computer screens?
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.
Denton
E R
ER
Department of Radiology, Kent and Canterbury Hospitals NHS Trust, Canterbury, UK.
Barrington
S F
SF
Kettle
A G
AG
Morrison
I D
ID
O'Doherty
M J
MJ
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