An approach to evaluate the quality of radiological reports in Head and Neck cancer loco-regional staging: experience of two Academic Hospitals

• Published in: Radiologia medica 2022-04, Vol.127 (4), p.407-413
• Main Authors: Giannitto, Caterina, Esposito, Andrea Alessandro, Spriano, Giuseppe, De Virgilio, Armando, Avola, Emanuele, Beltramini, Giada, Carrafiello, Gianpaolo, Casiraghi, Elena, Coppola, Alessandra, Cristofaro, Valentina, Farina, Davide, Gaino, Francesca, Lastella, Giulia, Lofino, Ludovica, Maroldi, Roberto, Piccoli, Francesca, Pignataro, Lorenzo, Preda, Lorenzo, Russo, Elena, Solimeno, Lorenzo, Vatteroni, Giulia, Vidiri, Antonello, Balzarini, Luca, Mercante, Giuseppe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cancer; Computed tomography; Diagnostic Imaging in Oncology; Diagnostic Radiology; Evaluation; Head and Neck Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Hospitals; Humans; Imaging; Interventional Radiology; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neoplasm Staging; Neuroradiology; Parotid Gland; Radiology; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods; Ultrasound
• ISSN: 1826-6983; 0033-8362; 1826-6983
• DOI: 10.1007/s11547-022-01464-x

Objectives To evaluate the quality of the reports of loco-regional staging computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in head and neck (H&N) cancer. Methods Consecutive reports of staging CT and MRI of all H&N cancer cases from 2018 to 2020 were collected. We created lists of quality indicators for tumor (T) for each district and for node (N). We marked these as 0 or 1 in the report calculating a report score (RS) and a maximum sum (MS) of each list. Two radiologists and two otolaryngologists in consensus classified reports as low quality (LQ) if the RS fell in the percentage range 0–59% of MS and as high quality (HQ) if it fell in the range 60–100%, annotating technique and district. We evaluated the distribution of reports in these categories. Results Two hundred thirty-seven reports (97 CT and 140 MRI) of 95 oral cavity, 52 laryngeal, 47 oropharyngeal, 19 hypo-pharyngeal, 14 parotid, and 10 nasopharyngeal cancers were included. Sixty-six percent of all the reports were LQ for T, 66% out of all the MRI reports, and 65% out of all CT reports were LQ. Eight-five percent of reports were HQ for N, 85% out of all the MRI reports, and 82% out of all CT reports were HQ. Reports of oral cavity, oro-nasopharynx, and parotid were LQ, respectively, in 76%, 73%, 100% and 92 out of cases. Conclusion Reports of staging CT/MRI in H&N cancer were LQ for T description and HQ for N description.