Aims and objectives
Nowadays,
despite the outstanding performances of computed tomography (CT) in thoracic diseases,
CXR is still the most commonly used imaging modality worldwide [1].
Numerous studies have shown that CXR remained critical for decision-making and that a wrong interpretation could adversely modify patient management [2–4].
Paradoxically,
CXR reading is less and less taught today,
even though it is one of the more demanding in terms of cognitive load and experience.
Although the skill level of radiology residents has already been investigated through various methodologies,
those studies...
Methods and materials
Our institutional review board approved this study.
The study design comprised 3 phases,
as summarized in the flow chart (Figure 1).
CXR selection phase:
A chest radiologist (expert 1 with 10 years of experience in chest imaging),
selected a set of 40 CXR from our local Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).
Each CXR was chosen to fall into one of these 3 categories: CXR expected to mobilize detection skills (n=16),
CXR expected to mobilize interpretation skills (n=17) and normal CXR (n=7) (Figure 2).
After...
Results
A full consensus between experts was obtained in 24 out of 40 CXR,
including 10 CXR from the detection category,
10 CXR from the interpretation category and 4 CXR from the normal category.
All residents accepted to participate and all completed the experiment.
There were 37% PGY 1-2 and 63% PGY 3-5 residents.
Twelve out of 81 (14.8%) residents attended at least one CXR training session during their residency.
Thirty-one out of 81 (38.3%) residents read on average more than 10 CXR per week.
Seventy-four...
Conclusion
This study aimed to provide an overview,
as accurate as possible,
of the current mean skill level of radiology residents in reading chest radiograph.
These results show that a majority of radiology residents have a general background in CXR allowing the achievement of less elaborate tasks such as distinguishing normal from abnormal findings.
However,
the rather poor performances of residents to provide a diagnosis,
especially for abnormal CXR (47.4% of true diagnoses),
is a first signal suggesting room for improvement in teaching chest radiography.
Residents...
References
[1] United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (2008) Sources and Effects of ionizing radiation.
2008 Report to the General Assembly,
with scientific annexes.
Volume I.
United Nations,
New York n.d.
[2] Grosvenor LJ,
Verma R,
O’Brien R,
Entwisle JJ,
Finlay D.
Does Reporting of Plain Chest Radiographs Affect the Immediate Management of Patients Admitted to a Medical Assessment Unit? Clin Radiol 2003;58:719–22.
[3] Wardrope J,
Chennells PM.
Should all casualty radiographs be reviewed? BMJ 1985;290:1638–40.
[4] Hardy M,
Snaith B,
Scally...