Integration of imaging signs into RadLex

Abstract

Imaging signs form an important part of the language of radiology, but are not represented in established lexicons. We sought to incorporate imaging signs into RSNA's RadLex® ontology of radiology terms. Names of imaging signs and their definitions were culled from books, journal articles, dictionaries, and biomedical web sites. Imaging signs were added into RadLex as subclasses of the term "imaging sign," which was defined in RadLex as a subclass of "imaging observation." A total of 743 unique imaging signs were added to RadLex with their 392 synonyms to yield a total of 1,135 new terms. All included definitions and related RadLex terms, including imaging modality, anatomy, and disorder, when appropriate. The information will allow RadLex users to identify imaging signs by modality (e.g., ultrasound signs) and to find all signs related to specific pathophysiology. The addition of imaging signs to RadLex augments its use to index the radiology literature, create and interpret clinical radiology reports, and retrieve relevant cases and images.

Fig. 1

Illustration of the relationships between imaging signs and other RadLex terms. The thick arrows designate subclass relationships. For example, the RadLex term “imaging observation” has the subclass “imaging sign”; thus, an imaging sign is-a imaging observation. The terms “Mercedes Benz sign” and “wall-echo-shadow sign” both are associated with the pathophysiologic process “gallstone in gall bladder.” Because a term inherits properties from its parent, the wall-echo-shadow sign, for example, is known to be associated with ultrasound because that relationship is defined for its parent, “ultrasound sign.” This structure allows users to identify all imaging signs related to a particular disorder, such as gallstones, or an imaging modality, such as ultrasound

Fig. 2

Schematic diagram showing relationship of RadLex terms for “imaging observation” and “imaging sign.” More general terms are shown superiorly in the diagram

Fig. 3

Details of RadLex entry of the imaging sign, “absent bow tie sign.” Note that the entry includes the term's RadLex ID (RID34411), definition text, and RadLex terms for related imaging modalities, anatomic sites, and conditions. Screenshot from National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) BioPortal web site