Structured reporting for fibrosing lung disease: a model shared by radiologist and pulmonologist

Nicola Sverzellati,The Italian Structured Report On Fibrosing Lung Disease Consort ,Giorgia Dalpiaz,Anna Rita Larici,Luciano Cardinale,Giancarlo Cortese,Mario Silva,Maurizio Zompatori,Roberta Polverosi,Anna Odone,Carlo Florio,Sara Piciucchi,Giancarlo Addonisio

doi:10.1007/s11547-017-0835-6

Abstract

ObjectivesTo apply the Delphi exercise with iterative involvement of radiologists and pulmonologists with the aim of defining a structured reporting template for high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of patients with fibrosing lung disease (FLD).MethodsThe writing committee selected the HRCT criteria—the Delphi items—for rating from both radiology panelists (RP) and pulmonology panelists (PP). The Delphi items were first rated by RPs as “essential”, “optional”, or “not relevant”. The items rated “essential” by < 80% of the RP were selected for the PP rating. The format of reporting was rated by both RP and PP.ResultsA total of 42 RPs and 12 PPs participated to the survey. In both Delphi round 1 and 2, 10/27 (37.7%) items were rated “essential” by more than 80% of RP. The remaining 17/27 (63.3%) items were rated by the PP in round 3, with 2/17 items (11.7%) rated “essential” by the PP. PP proposed additional items for conclusion domain, which were rated by RPs in the fourth round. Poor consensus was observed for the format of reporting.ConclusionsThis study provides a template for structured report of FLD that features essential items as agreed by expert thoracic radiologists and pulmonologists.

Highlights

The radiology report is an essential part of the service that radiologists provide to both patients and referring physicians, in any field of medicine
Free text clinical reports may heterogeneously render the core information, making it difficult to compare reports or find specific details [2, 3]. This is true for diffuse lung disease (DLD), which is often a challenging diagnosis and prone to variable description by high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT)
Reporting enlarged lymphnodes might result misleading in patients with fibrosing lung disease (FLD) because these abnormalities frequently coexist without specific clinical implication

Summary

Introduction

The radiology report is an essential part of the service that radiologists provide to both patients and referring physicians, in any field of medicine. Free text clinical reports may heterogeneously render the core information (e.g., language and cultural variability), making it difficult to compare reports or find specific details [2, 3]. This is true for diffuse lung disease (DLD), which is often a challenging diagnosis and prone to variable description by high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). Reporting enlarged lymphnodes might result misleading in patients with fibrosing lung disease (FLD) because these abnormalities frequently coexist without specific clinical implication

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion