Reporting frequency of radiology findings increases after introducing visual rating scales in the primary care diagnostic work up of subjective and mild cognitive impairment

• Objectives Study the effect of introducing a template for radiological reporting of non-enhanced computed tomography (NECT) in the primary care diagnostic work up of cognitive impairment using visual rating scales (VRS). Methods Radiology reports were assessed regarding compliance with a contextual report template and the reporting of the parameters medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA), white matter changes (WMC), global cortical atrophy (GCA), and width of lateral ventricles (WLV) using established VRS in two age-matched groups examined with NECT before (n= 111) and after (n= 125) the introduction of contextual reporting at our department. True positive rate (TPR) and true negative rate (TNR) before and after were compared. Results We observed a significant increase in the percentage of radiology reports with mentioning of MTA from 29 to 76% (p< 0.001), WMC from 69 to 86% (p< 0.01), and GCA from 54 to 82% (p< 0.001). We observed a significant increase in the percentages of reports where all of the parameters were mentioned, from 6 to 29% (p< 0.001). There was a significant increase in TPR from 10 to 55% for MTA. Conclusion This study suggests that contextual radiological assessment using VRS could increase the reporting frequency of radiology findings in the diagnostic work up of cognitive impairment but compliance with templates may be difficult to endorse.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Radiologi och bildbehandling (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Brain

Dementia

Tomography X-ray computed

medial temporal-lobe

alzheimers-disease

dementia

atrophy

mri

Radiology

Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)