Inter-observer variation in the interpretation of chest radiographs for pneumonia in community-acquired lower respiratory tract infections.
Clin Radiol
; 59(8): 743-52, 2004 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-15262550
ABSTRACT
AIM:
To assess inter-observer variation in the interpretation of chest radiographs of individuals with pneumonia versus those without pneumonia. MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
Chest radiographs of out-patients with a lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) were assessed for the presence of infiltrates by radiologists from three local hospitals and were reassessed by one university hospital radiologist. Various measures of inter-observer agreement were calculated.RESULTS:
The observed proportional agreement was 218 in 243 patients (89.7%). Kappa was 0.53 (moderate agreement) with a 95% confidence interval of 0.37 to 0.69. The observed positive agreement (59%) was much lower than for negative agreement (94%). Kappa was considerably lower, if chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was present (kappa = 0.20) or Streptococcus pneumoniae (kappa = -0.29) was the infective agent.CONCLUSION:
The overall inter-observer agreement adjusted for chance was moderate. Inter-observer agreement in cases with pneumonia was much worse than the agreement in negative (i.e. non-pneumonia) cases. A general practitioner's selection of patients with a higher chance of having pneumonia for chest radiography would thus not improve the observer agreement.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Pneumonia
/
Infecções Respiratórias
/
Pulmão
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2004
Tipo de documento:
Article