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. 2021 Nov 3;11(11):2033.
doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11112033.

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

Vincenza Granata  1 , Giovanni Morana  2 , Mirko D'Onofrio  3 , Roberta Fusco  4 , Francesca Coppola  5 , Francesca Grassi  6   7 , Salvatore Cappabianca  7 , Alfonso Reginelli  7 , Nicola Maggialetti  8 , Duccio Buccicardi  9 , Antonio Barile  6   10 , Marco Rengo  11 , Chandra Bortolotto  12 , Fabrizio Urraro  7 , Giorgia Viola La Casella  7 , Marco Montella  7 , Eleonora Ciaghi  13 , Francesco Bellifemine  13 , Federica De Muzio  14 , Ginevra Danti  15 , Giulia Grazzini  15 , Carmelo Barresi  16 , Luca Brunese  14 , Emanuele Neri  6   17 , Roberto Grassi  6   7 , Vittorio Miele  6   15 , Lorenzo Faggioni  17
Affiliations

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

Vincenza Granata et al. Diagnostics (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Structured reporting (SR) in radiology has been recognized recently by major scientific societies. This study aims to build structured computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR)-based reports in pancreatic adenocarcinoma during the staging phase in order to improve communication between the radiologist and members of multidisciplinary teams.

Materials and methods: A panel of expert radiologists, members of the Italian Society of Medical and Interventional Radiology, was established. A modified Delphi process was used to develop the CT-SR and MRI-SR, assessing a level of agreement for all report sections. Cronbach's alpha (Cα) correlation coefficient was used to assess internal consistency for each section and to measure quality analysis according to the average inter-item correlation.

Results: The final CT-SR version was built by including n = 16 items in the "Patient Clinical Data" section, n = 11 items in the "Clinical Evaluation" section, n = 7 items in the "Imaging Protocol" section, and n = 18 items in the "Report" section. Overall, 52 items were included in the final version of the CT-SR. The final MRI-SR version was built by including n = 16 items in the "Patient Clinical Data" section, n = 11 items in the "Clinical Evaluation" section, n = 8 items in the "Imaging Protocol" section, and n = 14 items in the "Report" section. Overall, 49 items were included in the final version of the MRI-SR. In the first round for CT-SR, all sections received more than a good rating. The overall mean score of the experts was 4.85. The Cα correlation coefficient was 0.85. In the second round, the overall mean score of the experts was 4.87, and the Cα correlation coefficient was 0.94. In the first round, for MRI-SR, all sections received more than a good rating. The overall mean score of the experts was 4.73. The Cα correlation coefficient was 0.82. In the second round, the overall mean score of the experts was 4.91, and the Cα correlation coefficient was 0.93.

Conclusions: The CT-SR and MRI-SR are based on a multi-round consensus-building Delphi exercise derived from the multidisciplinary agreement of expert radiologists in order to obtain more appropriate communication tools for referring physicians.

Keywords: computed tomography; magnetic resonance imaging; pancreatic adenocarcinoma; radiology report; structured report.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to be disclosed. The authors confirm that the article is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Each author has participated sufficiently to take public responsibility for the content of the manuscript.

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