title: Interobserver reliability of the chest radiograph in pulmonary embolism.
abstract: This study was sought to evaluate the interobserver agreement for interpreting the chest radiograph of patients with suspected acute pulmonary embolism (PE). The chest radiographs of 300 patients with clinically suspected acute PE were reviewed by 4 radiologists. Observers assessed the chest radiographic abnormalities and classified the chest radiograph as normal or abnormal. We found that the overall interobserver agreement was good for the exclusion of any pleural or parenchymal abnormality (k = 0.6; 95% CI: 0.56-0.64) but fair (k = 0.28; 95% CI: 0.17-0.40) between junior radiologists when evaluating supine chest radiographs. The level of interobserver agreement for the interpretation of the chest radiograph as consistent or not with PE was fair (k = 0.24; 95% CI: 0.19-0.29), regardless of the observer experience. In conclusion, chest radiography may be reliably used for targeting patients with suspected acute PE for different subsequent diagnostic investigations.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Clinical Sciences, Section of Radiology, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sverzellati
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Filippo
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Quintavalla
authors.forename: Giorgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Randi
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Franco
authors.forename: Rocco
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cobelli
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valentino
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Colombi
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zompatori
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult