[Interpretation of standard chest x-rays in thoracic trauma: influence of the experience of the interpreter]

Abstract

Objective: To compare the quality of interpretation of chest radiographs (CRs) by physicians of different levels of experience, with reference to data obtained from helicoidal computed tomography (HCT).

Study design: Prospective observational study.

Material: CRs of 50 thorax trauma patients as recent to HCTs as possible obtained within the 48 h following admission to the intensive therapy unit.

Method: CRs were analyzed according to a grid by observers included in one of the four groups: residents in anaesthesiology (n = 6), residents in radiology (n = 3), senior anaesthesiologists (n = 5), and senior radiologists (n = 3). The inter-observer agreements, the specificity and sensibility of each group with reference to HCT, and their global performances were assessed.

Results: Inter-observer agreements were poor and sensitivities low in comparison to specificities. No group of observers performed better than another one. These data substantiate the low sensitivity of CRs in comparison to HCT and show that the quality of interpretation of CRs of thorax trauma patients is not influenced by physicians' experience.