Structured Reporting of Lung Cancer Staging: A Consensus Proposal

Abstract

Background: Structured reporting (SR) in radiology is becoming necessary and has recently been recognized by major scientific societies. This study aimed to build CT-based structured reports for lung cancer during the staging phase, in order to improve communication between radiologists, members of the multidisciplinary team and patients. Materials and Methods: A panel of expert radiologists, members of the Italian Society of Medical and Interventional Radiology, was established. A modified Delphi exercise was used to build the structural report and to assess the level of agreement for all the report sections. The Cronbach’s alpha (Cα) correlation coefficient was used to assess internal consistency for each section and to perform a quality analysis according to the average inter-item correlation. Results: The final SR version was built by including 16 items in the “Patient Clinical Data” section, 4 items in the “Clinical Evaluation” section, 8 items in the “Exam Technique” section, 22 items in the “Report” section, and 5 items in the “Conclusion” section. Overall, 55 items were included in the final version of the SR. The overall mean of the scores of the experts and the sum of scores for the structured report were 4.5 (range 1–5) and 631 (mean value 67.54, STD 7.53), respectively, in the first round. The items of the structured report with higher accordance in the first round were primary lesion features, lymph nodes, metastasis and conclusions. The overall mean of the scores of the experts and the sum of scores for staging in the structured report were 4.7 (range 4–5) and 807 (mean value 70.11, STD 4.81), respectively, in the second round. The Cronbach’s alpha (Cα) correlation coefficient was 0.89 in the first round and 0.92 in the second round for staging in the structured report. Conclusions: The wide implementation of SR is critical for providing referring physicians and patients with the best quality of service, and for providing researchers with the best quality of data in the context of the big data exploitation of the available clinical data. Implementation is complex, requiring mature technology to successfully address pending user-friendliness, organizational and interoperability challenges.

Structured Reporting of Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance in the Staging of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: A Delphi Consensus Proposal

“…Implementation is complex, requiring mature technology, organizational and interoperability challenges, especially adequate storage of data, and easy and adequate connections with PACS-and post-processing software. Consequently, introduction of SR should be seen as a comprehensive effort, affecting all domains of radiology [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62].…”

Quantitative Analysis of Residual COVID-19 Lung CT Features: Consistency among Two Commercial Software

“…According to Johns Hopkins University, case-fatality rates of COVID-19 patients ranges between 1% and 7% based on days since first confirmed case, testing efficacy, local pandemic response policies, and the population age [45][46][47][48][49]. Multi-organ manifestations of COVID-19 are now well-documented [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57], but the potential long-term implications of these manifestations remain to be uncovered. Several studies have reported impaired exercise capacity and diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DL CO ) in SARS-CoV-1 survivors extending from 6 months to 15 years of follow-up [58][59][60][61][62][63][64], suggesting impairment of the intra-alveolar diffusion pathway.…”

Complications Risk Assessment and Imaging Findings of Thermal Ablation Treatment in Liver Cancers: What the Radiologist Should Expect

“…However, inconsistencies with regard to content, style, and presentation can hamper information transfer and diminish the clarity of the reports, which can in turn adversely affect the extraction of the required key information by the referring physician. Therefore, FRT should be organized and re-orientated toward structured reports (SR) [ 150 , 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 , 155 , 156 , 157 , 158 , 159 ]. According to the European Society of Radiology (ESR) paper on SR in radiology, the three main goals for moving from FTR to SR are quality, datafication/quantification and accessibility [ 150 , 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 , 155 , 156 , 157 , 158 , 159 ].…”

“…Therefore, FRT should be organized and re-orientated toward structured reports (SR) [ 150 , 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 , 155 , 156 , 157 , 158 , 159 ]. According to the European Society of Radiology (ESR) paper on SR in radiology, the three main goals for moving from FTR to SR are quality, datafication/quantification and accessibility [ 150 , 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 , 155 , 156 , 157 , 158 , 159 ]. With regard to quality, this is correlated to standardization.…”

“…In this scenario, by using a dedicated report template, the radiologist has a list of predefined relevant items for the case at hand, ensuring that no important data is missed. This should not only guarantee a consistently high quality of final report, but also aid in the management of patients [ 150 , 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 , 155 , 156 , 157 , 158 , 159 ].…”