Poor inter-observer agreement in anatomical classifications of infrapopliteal arterial disease due to mandatory selection of only one target artery

BACKGROUND: Established anatomical classifications of infrapopliteal arterial lesion severity are based on assessment of only one target artery, not including all infrapopliteal arteries although multivessel revascularization is common.PURPOSE: To investigate the reproducibility of one of these classifications and a new aggregated score.MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 68 patients undergoing endovascular infrapopliteal revascularization at Sahlgrenska University Hospital during 2008-2016 were included. Preoperative magnetic resonance angiographies (MRA) and digital subtraction angiographies (DSA) were evaluated by three blinded observers in random order, using the infrapopliteal TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus (TASC) II classification. An aggregated score, the Infrapopliteal Total Atherosclerotic Burden (I-TAB) score, including all infrapopliteal arteries, was constructed and used for comparison.RESULTS: Inter-observer agreement on lesion severity for each evaluated artery was good; Krippendorff's α for MRA 0.64-0.79 and DSA 0.66-0.84. Inter-observer agreement on TASC II grade, based on the selected target artery as stipulated, was poor; Krippendorff's α 0.14 (95% confidence interval [CI]=-0.05 to 0.30) for MRA and 0.48 (95% CI=0.33-0.61) for DSA. Inter-observer agreement for the new I-TAB score was good; Krippendorff's α 0.76 (95% CI=0.70-0.81) for MRA and 0.79 (95% CI=0.74-0.84) for DSA.CONCLUSION: Reproducible assessment of infrapopliteal lesion severity can be achieved for separate arteries with both MRA and DSA using the TASC II definitions. However, poor inter-observer agreement in selecting the target artery results in low reproducibility of the overall infrapopliteal TASC II grade. An aggregated score, such as I-TAB, results in less variability and may provide a more robust evaluation tool of atherosclerotic disease severity

Comparison of Magnetic Resonance Angiography and Digital Subtraction Angiography for the Assessment of Infrapopliteal Arterial Occlusive Lesions, Based on the TASC II Classification Criteria

This paper aimed to study the agreement and repeatability, both intra- and interobserver, of infrapopliteal lesion assessment with magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), using the TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus (TASC) II criteria, with perioperative digital subtraction angiography (DSA) as a reference. Sixty-eight patients with an MRA preceding an endovascular infrapopliteal revascularization were included. Preoperative MRAs and perioperative DSAs were evaluated in random order by three independent observers using the TASC II classification. The results were analyzed using visual grading characteristics (VGC) analysis and Krippendorffs alpha. No systematic difference was found between modalities: area under the VGC curve (AUC(VGC)) = 0.48 (p = 0.58) or intraobserver; AUC(VGC) for Observer 1 and 2 respectively, 0.49 (p = 0.85) and 0.53 (p = 0.52) for MRA compared with 0.54 (p = 0.30) and 0.49 (p = 0.81) for DSA. Interobserver differences were seen: AUC(VGC) of 0.63 (p &amp;lt; 0.01) for DSA and 0.80 (p &amp;lt; 0.01) for MRA. These results were confirmed using Krippendorffs alpha for the three observers showing 0.13 (95% confidence interval (CI) -0.07-0.31) for MRA and 0.39 (95% CI 0.23-0.53) for DSA. Poor interobserver agreement was also found in the choice of a target vessel on preoperative MRA: Krippendorffs alpha = 0.19 (95% CI 0.01-0.36). In conclusion, infrapopliteal lesions can be reliably determined on preoperative MRA, but interobserver variability regarding the choice of a target vessel is a major concern that appears to affect the overall TASC II grade.Funding Agencies|Vastra Gotaland Region [ALFGBG-218331]; Research Council, Diagnostics, Jonkoping County, Sweden</p

Detection of pulmonary nodules in chest tomosynthesis: Comparison with chest radiography, evaluation of learning effects and investigation of radiation dose level dependency

Chest tomosynthesis is a relatively recently introduced technique in healthcare, which produces section images of the chest at a lower radiation dose than computed tomography (CT) and with better depth resolution than conventional chest radiography. The primary aims of the studies described in this dissertation were to compare chest tomosynthesis with conventional radiography, to evaluate the effects of clinical experience and learning with feedback on the performance of observers analyzing tomosynthesis images, and to investigate the effect of radiation dose level in tomosynthesis, in the detection of pulmonary nodules. Human observer studies were performed, in which radiologists were instructed to localize and rate pulmonary nodules in patient images. Chest CT was used as reference. The observers' performance regarding the detection of nodules was used as measure of detectability. The results of the studies indicate that the detection of pulmonary nodules is better in chest tomosynthesis than in conventional chest radiography, that experienced thoracic radiologists can quickly adapt to the new technique, that inexperienced observers may perform at a similar level to experienced radiologists after a learning session with feedback, and that a substantial reduction in the effective dose to the patient may be possible