Impact on MRI technologist of a PI-QUAL v2 educational program on prostate MRI image quality assessment

Abstract

Purpose

The Prostate Imaging Quality scoring system version 2 (PI-QUAL v2) is a new scoring system used to assess the diagnostic quality of prostate magnetic resonance imaging (pMRI). This study investigated the impact of a focused training module on the ability of MRI technologists (MRI-Tech) and MRI-Tech students to evaluate pMRI image quality.

Methods

Thirty-nine subjects including MRI-Tech students and experienced MRI-Tech with different levels of experience in pMRI participated in the study. The image quality of twenty pMRIs was evaluated before and after a dedicated lecture on pMRI image quality assessment using PI-QUAL v2 score. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated for each scorer before and after the lecture, stratified by experience, and compared to the PI-QUAL v2 score assigned by a radiologist specialized in pMRI, using DeLong test.

Results

A significant improvement in AUC of pMRI image quality assessment was observed: from the baseline (0.31 ± 0.05) to the post-intervention (0.97 ± 0.01), with an improvement of 0.66 (p < 0.001). The ROC curves stratified by experience, demonstrated an improvement of 0.44 [0.50 ± 0.07–0.94 ± 0.01] for II-year MRI-Tech students (p < 0.001), of 0.48 [0.46 ± 0.09–0.94 ± 0.01] for III-year MRI-Tech students (p < 0.032) and 0.60 [0.33 ± 0.10–0.93 ± 0.01] for board-certified MRI-Techs (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

The PI-QUAL v2 training module improved the ability of both MRI-Tech students and board-certified MRI-Techs to assess the quality of pMRI images.