Gender diversity in radiology: Shedding light on the 256 shades of grey.

INTRODUCTION: Despite medical school cohorts being composed of approximately 50% men and women, trainee positions in Clinical Radiology remain predominantly occupied by men. This study aims to identify reasons behind the gender gap, explore why more women are not pursuing a career in Clinical Radiology and to assess if there are gender differences in these reasons. METHODS: Prospective multi-centre study using a voluntary, anonymous questionnaire aimed at senior Medical Students and Junior Doctors. RESULTS: A total of 318 participants responded to the questionnaire - 197 women (61.9%), 114 men (35.8%), 4 non-binary (1.3%), 2 preferred not to answer gender (0.6%), 1 I/they (0.3%). The most common reasons for not considering Clinical Radiology as a specialty include 'perceived limited patient contact' (62%), 'never/rarely exposed to it' (59%) and 'too lonely' (49%). Reasons with the largest gender discrepancies were 'too technology heavy' and 'limited patient contact', both cited more frequently by women. Most respondents indicated that their opinions of Clinical Radiology may change with more exposure during medical school, more patient contact and more mentorship. CONCLUSION: This study has revealed multiple reasons why women may not pursue specialty training in Clinical Radiology. Notable differences were found in the reasonings provided by men and women. Limited Clinical Radiology exposure and mentorship in medical school result in a lack of interest in this specialty as a career option. A proposed solution is to offer more medical school lectures and more junior doctor rotations to debunk stereotypes that may be negatively impacting opinions on Clinical Radiology. More mentorship of Medical Students and Junior Doctors, particularly from women, may also help decrease the gender gap.

Under-reporting of forensic findings: craniocervical emergency imaging in cases of survived hanging.

To determine the diagnostic bias between clinical and forensic radiology in cases of nonfatal hanging and determine and describe typical underreported imaging findings. In a retrospective, single-center study, all patients admitted for attempted suicide with near-hanging or fatal hanging between January 2008 and December 2020 who received CT or MRI of head and neck were reviewed and missed findings in the original report were documented. A binary regression with disagreement as dependent variable was fitted for the imaging modality, fatality, age, and sex. A total of 123 hanging incidents were retrospectively analyzed. The vast majority (n = 108; 87.8%) had attempted suicide with a nonfatal outcome. Fatal outcome occurred in 15 (12.0%). The extra- and intracranial injuries documented on CT and MRI scans were laryngeal (n = 8; 6.5%), soft tissue (n = 42; 34.1%), and vascular injuries (n = 1; 0.8%). Intracranial pathology was evident on 18 (14.6%) scans. Disagreement occurred in 36 (29.3%) cases and represented 52 (69.2%) of all cases with a radiological finding. Disagreement was strongly associated with fatality (OR: 2.7-44.9.4, p = 0.0012). In most cases, nonfatal hangings cause no or only minor injuries. Fatal cases are associated with a greater probability of missed minor imaging findings. This suggests that findings deemed clinically irrelevant are probably not reported in such severe emergency cases. This association indicates that minor abnormalities are underreported when major pathologies are evident on imaging in victims of strangulation.

The Benefits and Barriers of Using Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Primary Healthcare in the United States.

An effective healthcare system should embrace practices that enhance overall quality and productivity. Training primary care physicians in Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) has become part of the processes that improve the quality of patient care and serve to guide the diagnostic impression quickly and effectively. With the purpose of highlighting the applications and challenges of POCUS use in US primary health care, we conducted a narrative review based on PubMed-indexed and Cochrane Library English text publications searched in May-July 2022 using a combination of key terms including point of care ultrasound, primary care, and US healthcare. Many studies have shown that POCUS has a positive impact on fostering medical attention and reducing morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. Besides assisting in procedures, POCUS has a head-to-toe application in evaluating inflammatory and infectious conditions, acute abdomen, cardiopulmonary function, musculoskeletal and vascular pathologies. However, its uniform implementation is limited across the US healthcare system due to multitudes of barriers such as lack of training, resource scarcity, and low reimbursement. Training primary care physicians in general and emergency care providers, in particular, is key to scaleup POCUS use. Large size studies are paramount to further explore the effectiveness of POCUS and identify key challenges to its implementation.

Development and Implementation of a Multisite Registry Using Structured Templates for Actionable Findings in the Kidney.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to scale structured report templates categorizing actionable renal findings across health systems and create a centralized registry of patient and report data. METHODS: In January 2017, three academic radiology departments agreed to prospectively include identical structured templates categorizing the malignant likelihood of renal findings in ≥90% of all adult ultrasound, MRI, and CT reports, a new approach for two sites. Between November 20, 2017, and September 30, 2019, deidentified HL7 report data were transmitted to a centralized ACR registry. An automated algorithm extracted categories. Radiologists were requested to addend reports with missing or incomplete templates after the first month. Separately, each site submitted patient sociodemographic and clinical data 12 months before and at least 3 months after enrollment. RESULTS: A total of 164,982 eligible radiology reports were transmitted to the registry; 4,159 (2.5%) were excluded because of missing categories or radiologist names. The final cohort included 160,823 examinations on 102,619 unique patients. Mean template use before and after addendum requests was 99.3% and 99.9% at SITE1, 86.5% and 94.6% at SITE2, and 91.4% and 96.0% at SITE3. Matching patient sociodemographic and clinical data were obtained on 96.9% of reports from SITE1, 94.2% from SITE2, and 96.0% from SITE3. Regulatory, cultural, and technology barriers to the creation of a multisite registry were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Barriers to the adoption of unified structured report templates for actionable kidney findings can be addressed. Deidentified report and patient data can be securely transmitted to an external registry. These data can facilitate the collection of diverse evidence-based population imaging outcomes.

Pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema post cocaine and amphetamine insufflation.

A 20-year-old gentleman presented with blood-streaked vomitus after insufflation of an unknown amount of powder cocaine and amphetamine. This was taken with an unspecified amount of alcohol. Other notable symptoms were dysphagia, chest pain, palpitations and the patient reported a 'crunchy' sensation in his chest. A chest x-ray revealed pneumomediastinum and a computerised tomography (CT) trauma confirmed these findings with associated subcutaneous emphysema without an identifiable cause. Follow up investigations included a barium swallow and gastroscopy which showed no obvious perforation but mild gastritis and duodenitis. He was managed conservatively with proton pump inhibitor cover and his symptoms resolved.

Ethics and standards in the use of artificial intelligence in medicine on behalf of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists.

INTRODUCTION: The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) led the medical community in Australia and New Zealand in considering the impact of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in health care. RANZCR identified that medical leadership was largely absent from these discussions, with a notable absence of activity from governments in the Australasian region up to 2019. The clinical radiology and radiation oncology sectors were considered ripe for the adoption of AI, and this raised a range of concerns about how to ensure the ethical application of AI and to guide its safe and appropriate use in our two specialties. METHODS: RANZCR's Artificial Intelligence Committee undertook a landscape review in 2019 anddetermined that AI within clinical radiology and radiation oncology had the potential to grow rapidly and significantly impact the professions. In order to address this, RANZCR drafted ethical principles on the use of AI and standards to guide deployment and engaged in extensive stakeholder consultation to ensure a range of perspectives were received and considered. RESULTS: RANZCR published two key bodies of work: The Ethical Principles of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, and the Standards of Practice for Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Radiology. CONCLUSION: RANZCR's publications in this area have established a solid foundation to prepare for the application of AI, however more work is needed. We will continue to assess the evolution of AI and ML within our professions, strive to guide the upskilling of clinical radiologists and radiation oncologists, advocate for appropriate regulation and produce guidance to ensure that patient care is delivered safely.

Clinical Radiology Case Presentation: Do's and Don'ts.

Clinical case presentation is part of daily routine for doctors to communicate with each other to facilitate learning, and ultimately patient management. Hence, the art of good clinical case presentation is a skill that needs to be mastered. Case presentations are a part of most undergraduate and postgraduate training programs aimed at nurturing oratory and presentation design skills. This article is an attempt at providing a trainee in radiology a guideline to good case presentation skills.

[Correlation of the manifestations of tuberculosis and the degree of immunosuppression in patients with HIV]. / Corrélations des manifestations de la tuberculose pulmonaire avec le degré d'immunodépression au VIH.

CONTEXT: Correlation of the manifestations of tuberculosis and the degree of immunosuppression in patients with HIV. BACKGROUND: The advent of HIV has contributed to the increase in the number of people with tuberculosis. The clinical and paraclinical of TB/HIV co-infected are polymorphic and function of immune status. OBJECTIVES: To determines the clinical and paraclinical characteristics of TB related to different levels of CD4 lymphocytes. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective case series based on analysis of 450 patients with both TB/HIV co-infections. It focused on the records of patients with pulmonary smear-positive (TPM +) with a positive HIV status. The effect of immunosuppression was analyzed in groups based on the CD4 count (<200/mm(3), of 200-350/mm(3) and>350/mm(3)), in a chronological fashion from April to September 2010 until there were 150 patients in each CD4 group. RESULTS: Among the 450 patients, 71.1% were between 25 and 45years old. The clinical signs were more significant as the level of CD4 fell. The clinical signs were predominantly fever (93%) and weight loss (62.7%). Pulmonary cavitation (59.3%), infiltrates (38.7%) and the location of the lesions at the lung apex (72%) were more common in the third group patients. By contrast, extra pulmonary lesions (mediastinal lymphadenopathy, pleurisy) and normal x-ray (9.3%) were more frequent in patients of the first group. The scarcity of cavitations (22.3% compared to 59.3% CD4>350) and the increase in associated lesions became more marked if patients were immunocompromised. Hematologic, hepatic, renal disorders were more frequent and severe in the most immunocompromised patient group. CONCLUSION: HIV-associated tuberculosis has an atypical clinical, radiological, biological presentation and is more severe when there is significant immunosuppression.