(HealthDay News) — Performance on adenoma and advanced neoplasia detection is consistent among radiologists at computed tomographic (CT) colonography screening, according to a study published in the July issue of Radiology.
B. Dustin Pooler, M.D., from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, and colleagues analyzed variation in diagnostic performance of radiologists using data from examinations of 6,866 asymptomatic adults who underwent first-time CT colonographic screening at a single center from January 2005 to November 2011. Eight board-certified abdominal radiologists interpreted the results (mean number of CT colonographic studies per reader, 858).
The researchers found that there was no significant difference among radiologists in the overall prevalence of histopathologically confirmed advanced neoplasia (3.6%; range, 2.4% to 4.4%; P = 0.067; after exlusion of one outlier, P = 0.395). Of the polyps detected at CT colonography, 19.5% proved to be advanced neoplasia, with no significant difference seen among radiologists (range, 14.4% to 23.2%; P = 0.223).
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Among the radiologists, the overall per-polyp endoscopic confirmation rate was 93.5% (range, 80.0% to 97.6%; P = 0.585). The overall percentage of non-diagnostic CT colonographic examinations was also consistent among radiologists, at 0.7% (range, 0.3% to 1.1%; P = 0.509).
“Consistent performance for adenoma and advanced neoplasia detection, as well as other clinically relevant end points, were observed among radiologists at CT colonographic screening,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the medical diagnostics industry.
