title: Interobserver and Intraobserver Agreement of Sonographic BIRADS Lexicon in the Assessment of Breast Masses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  BI-RADS was first developed in 1993 for mammography and in 2003 it was redesigned for ultrasonography (US). If the observer agreement is high, the method used in the classification of lesion would be reproducible.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to evaluate the inter- and intraobserver agreement of sonographic BI-RADS lexicon in the categorization and feature characterization of nonpalpable breast lesions.
  
  
  METHODS
  We included 223 patients with 245 nonpalpable breast lesions who underwent ultrasound-guided wire needle localization. Two radiologists retrospectively described each lesion using sonographic BI-RADS descriptors and final assessment. The observers were blinded to mammographic images, medical history and pathologic results. Inter- and intraobserver agreement was assessed using Kappa (κ) agreement coefficient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The interobserver agreement for sonographic descriptors changed between fair and substantial. The highest agreement was detected for mass orientation (κ=0.66). The lowest agreement was found in the margin (κ=0.33). The interobserver agreement for BI-RADS final category was found as fair (κ=0.35). The intraobserver agreement for sonographic descriptors changed between substantial and almost perfect. The intraobserver agreement of BI-RADS result category was found as substantial for observer 1 (κ=0.64) and excellent for observer 2 (κ=0.83).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results demonstrated that each observer was self-consistent in interpreting US BI-RADS classification, while interobserver agreement was relatively poor. Although it has been ten years since the description of sonographic BI-RADS lexicon, further training and periodic performance evaluations would probably help to achieve better agreement among radiologists.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Eda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Elverici
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Yozgat State Hospital, Yozgat, Turkey.
authors.forename: Betul
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zengin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ayse
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nurdan Barca
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Artvin State Hospital, Artvin, Turkey.
authors.forename: Pinar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Didem Yilmaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Yozgat State Hospital, Yozgat, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aysegul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alimli
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Araz
keywords: Breast; Mammography; Ultrasonography