Virtual Chest Radiographs Developed From Computed Tomography Images for Differentiating Central Venous Versus Misplaced Arterial Lines and for Training Radiologists.

Objective: Radiographic findings to identify central venous catheter misplacement in the arteries, which can cause lethal complications, have not been fully evaluated, and its training is difficult because it is rare. The purpose of this study is to clarify radiographic findings for differentiating central venous and misplaced arterial lines using virtual chest radiographs and elucidate their usefulness in training radiologists.

Methods: This retrospective study included 150 patients (mean age, 67 [SD, ±12] years; 97 men) who underwent colon cancer surgery between January 2018 and December 2020. Virtual chest radiographs, including 6 oblique projections at 5° intervals, were developed from the computed tomography images using ray-sum reconstruction. Virtual venous and arterial lines were drawn from the right neck to the superior vena cava and aorta, respectively. Diagnostic abilities, including area under the curve (AUC) analysis of the 7 proposed radiographic findings for differentiating these lines in 100 patients, were evaluated. The diagnostic performance, including AUC analysis by 5 radiologists in the other 50 patients, was compared before and after disclosing these results to the radiologists.

Results: The findings of crossing over the right paratracheal stripe and running along the paracaval line showed the highest AUC for indicating arterial and venous lines in the frontal, right anterior oblique 15°, and left anterior oblique 15° projections (AUC = 0.992, 0.991, and 0.979, and 1.000, 0.994, and 0.998, respectively). The diagnostic performance of the radiologists improved after informing them of these results (AUC, 0.982-0.999 to 0.993-1.000 [ P  = 0.145-1.000] for the frontal projections and 0.932-0.970 to 0.967-0.995 [ P  = 0.075-0.150] for the oblique projections).

Conclusions: Virtual chest radiographs created from computed tomography images were useful for clarifying radiographic findings for differentiating central venous and misplaced arterial lines and for training radiologists.