Evaluation of the influence of clinical information on the interpretation of digital chest radiographs

Abstract

In this study, the impact of the availability and accuracy of the patient’s clinical, laboratory and anamnestic data on the conclusion of a radiologist was evaluated. To achieve this goal, three groups of protocols of 60 digital chest radiographs performed by five radiologists with different work experience were compared. At the first stage, a set of radiographs was provided without additional information, at the second stage — with reliable brief clinical, laboratory and anamnestic data and at the third stage - with unreliable data. As a result, it was shown that the availability of reliable and accurate clinical information is important for the interpretation of chest radiographs.