Effectiveness of a worksheet for diagnosing postmortem computed tomography in emergency departments.
Jpn J Radiol
; 29(10): 701-6, 2011 Dec.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-22009421
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a worksheet for diagnosing postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) in emergency departments (EDs). MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
A total of 49 cases of clinically diagnosed nontraumatic deaths in the ED who underwent total body PMCT were enrolled. PMCT images were prospectively evaluated by four radiologists two radiologists with 1.5 and 3.5 years of residency and two board-certified radiologists with >20 years of experience. Readers were independently instructed to detect and interpret findings with reference to fatal findings, postmortem features, changes caused by cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and other pathological findings according to a worksheet that was composed of the possible findings previously reported. Agreement on detection and interpretation of findings between each reader was measured using Cohen's kappa coefficients.RESULTS:
For the detection of findings, there was substantial agreement among the four readers (kappa > 0.60, P < 0.0001). There was substantial (kappa > 0.60, P < 0.0001) and near-substantial (kappa = 0.60, P < 0.0001) agreement in the interpretation of the finding.CONCLUSION:
Results of our study suggest equivalency on diagnosing PMCT regardless of the reader's level of experience. We conclude that the worksheet is useful for diagnosing PMCT in emergency departments.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Postmortem Changes
/
Autopsy
/
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
/
Emergency Service, Hospital
/
Checklist
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Observational_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Jpn J Radiol
Journal subject:
DIAGNOSTICO POR IMAGEM
/
RADIOLOGIA
/
RADIOTERAPIA
Year:
2011
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Japan