Film-reading ability of radiographers in detecting gastric cancer during screening using X-ray examination.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the film-reading ability of radiographers in detecting gastric cancer during screening X-ray examinations.


METHODS
A test set of 100 patients (50 negative and 50 positive; mean age 62 years, range 33-78 years) given a stomach X-ray examination were selected from those who underwent gastric cancer screening in Osaka, Japan, between 2000 and 2003. Eleven radiographers and four radiologists scored the test set on a five-point scale. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was defined as a measure of film-reading ability to detect cancer.


RESULTS
No significant difference (two-tailed P = 0.962, Welch's t-test) was observed between averaged AUC values from radiographers (0.76, range 0.85-0.62) and radiologists (0.75, range 0.86-0.62).


CONCLUSIONS
Film-reading ability of radiographers in detecting gastric cancer during screening X-ray examinations was not significantly different from that of radiologists. Our results suggest that radiographers can assist radiologists to detect gastric cancer during screening.
Department of Radiology, Kaizuka City Hospital, 3-10-20 Hori, Kaizuka, Osaka, 597-0015, Japan. yatakehidetoshi@yahoo.co.jp
Hidetoshi
H
Yatake
Yoshihiro
Y
Takeda
Toshizo
T
Katsuda
Rumi
R
Gotanda
Hideo
H
Yamazaki
Chikazumi
C
Kuroda
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D011859:Radiography; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013679:Technology, Radiologic / Q000592:standards*