Impact of clinical information on CT diagnosis by radiologist and subsequent clinical management by physician in acute abdominal pain.

OBJECTIVE: The impact of clinical information on radiological diagnoses and subsequent clinical management has not been sufficiently investigated. This study aimed to compare diagnostic performance between radiological reports made with and without clinical information and to evaluate differences in the clinical management decisions based on each of these reports. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 410 patients who presented with acute abdominal pain and underwent unenhanced (n = 248) or enhanced CT (n = 162). Clinical information including age, sex, current and past history, physical findings, and laboratory tests were collected. Six radiologists independently interpreted CTs that were randomly assigned with or without clinical information, made radiological diagnoses, and scored the diagnostic confidence level. Four general and emergency physicians simulated clinical management (i.e., followed up in the outpatient clinic, hospitalized for conservative therapy, or referred to other departments for invasive therapy) based on reports made with or without the clinical information. Reference standards for the radiological diagnoses and clinical management were defined by an independent expert panel. RESULTS: The radiological diagnoses made with clinical information were more accurate than those made without clinical information (93.7% vs. 87.8%, p = 0.008). Median interpretation time for radiological reporting with clinical information was significantly shorter than that without clinical information (median 122.0 vs. 139.0 s, p < 0.001). Clinical simulation better matched the reference standard for clinical management when radiological diagnoses were made with reference to clinical information (97.3% vs. 87.8%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Access to adequate clinical information enables accurate radiological diagnoses and appropriate subsequent clinical management of patients with acute abdominal pain. KEY POINTS: • Radiological interpretation improved diagnostic accuracy and confidence level when clinical information was provided. • Providing clinical information did not extend the interpretation time required by radiologists. • Radiological interpretation with clinical information led to correct clinical management by physicians.

Is "pain before vomiting" useful?: Diagnostic performance of the classic patient history item in acute appendicitis.

BACKGROUND: In most surgical textbooks, it has been stated that pain almost always precedes vomiting in patients with appendicitis. However, the usefulness of this classic history item, "pain before vomiting", has been investigated in only one study nearly 50 years ago, in which the cause of abdominal pain could not be identified in more than 40% of patients. Accordingly, our objective was to evaluate the performance of pain before vomiting for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis in patients who presented with both acute abdominal pain and vomiting. METHODS: A retrospective chart review of adult outpatients with abdominal pain and vomiting at three acute care hospitals was performed. The reference standard for appendicitis was a CT scan evaluated by two radiologists. Diagnostic performance of pain before vomiting and the value it added to the Alvarado score were evaluated. RESULTS: Among 310 patients, 24 patients were diagnosed with appendicitis. Diagnostic performance of pain before vomiting was a sensitivity of 95.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 79.8-99.3) and a specificity of 16.6% (95% CI 12.6-21.4). When combined with the Alvarado score, it ruled out appendicitis in an additional 12% (increased from 32% to 44%) of patients without any false negatives. CONCLUSIONS: "Pain before vomiting" is useful for ruling out appendicitis in patients with abdominal pain and vomiting.

Diagnostic utility of appetite loss in addition to existing prediction models for community-acquired pneumonia in the elderly: a prospective diagnostic study in acute care hospitals in Japan.

OBJECTIVE: Diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in the elderly is often delayed because of atypical presentation and non-specific symptoms, such as appetite loss, falls and disturbance in consciousness. The aim of this study was to investigate the external validity of existing prediction models and the added value of the non-specific symptoms for the diagnosis of CAP in elderly patients. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: General medicine departments of three teaching hospitals in Japan. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 109 elderly patients who consulted for upper respiratory symptoms between 1 October 2014 and 30 September 2016. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The reference standard for CAP was chest radiograph evaluated by two certified radiologists. The existing models were externally validated for diagnostic performance by calibration plot and discrimination. To evaluate the additional value of the non-specific symptoms to the existing prediction models, we developed an extended logistic regression model. Calibration, discrimination, category-free net reclassification improvement (NRI) and decision curve analysis (DCA) were investigated in the extended model. RESULTS: Among the existing models, the model by van Vugt demonstrated the best performance, with an area under the curve of 0.75(95% CI 0.63 to 0.88); calibration plot showed good fit despite a significant Hosmer-Lemeshow test (p=0.017). Among the non-specific symptoms, appetite loss had positive likelihood ratio of 3.2 (2.0-5.3), negative likelihood ratio of 0.4 (0.2-0.7) and OR of 7.7 (3.0-19.7). Addition of appetite loss to the model by van Vugt led to improved calibration at p=0.48, NRI of 0.53 (p=0.019) and higher net benefit by DCA. CONCLUSIONS: Information on appetite loss improved the performance of an existing model for the diagnosis of CAP in the elderly.

Fat suppression strategies in MR imaging of breast cancer at 3.0 T: comparison of the two-point Dixon technique and the frequency selective inversion method.

PURPOSE: To compare two fat suppression methods in contrast-enhanced MR imaging of breast cancer at 3.0 T: the two-point Dixon method and the frequency selective inversion method. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty female patients with breast cancer underwent contrast-enhanced three-dimensional T1-weighted MR imaging at 3.0 T. Both the two-point Dixon method and the frequency selective inversion method were applied. Quantitative analyses of the residual fat signal-to-noise ratio and the contrast noise ratio (CNR) of lesion-to-breast parenchyma, lesion-to-fat, and parenchyma-to-fat were performed. Qualitative analyses of the uniformity of fat suppression, image contrast, and the visibility of breast lesions and axillary metastatic adenopathy were performed. RESULTS: The signal-to-noise ratio was significantly lower in the two-point Dixon method (P < 0.001). All CNR values were significantly higher in the two-point Dixon method (P < 0.001 and P = 0.001, respectively). According to qualitative analysis, both the uniformity of fat suppression and image contrast with the two-point Dixon method were significantly higher (P < 0.001 and P = 0.002, respectively). Visibility of breast lesions and metastatic adenopathy was significantly better in the two-point Dixon method (P < 0.001 and P = 0.03, respectively). CONCLUSION: The two-point Dixon method suppressed the fat signal more potently and improved contrast and visibility of the breast lesions and axillary adenopathy.