IDENTIFICATION OF POSITIVES IN ROENTGENOGRAPHIC READINGS

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Abstract
The reliability of readings of thoracic roentgenograms was examined on the basis of roentgenograms successively viewed in the manner carried out with patients referred for roentgenographic study in the course of medical examination. Five hundred roentgenograms were presented in random arrangement to each of 9 readers, 5 of whom were roentgenologists and 4, specialists in diseases of the thorax. Ninety-eight of the roentgenograms had been designated previously as "positive" and 402 as "negative." With single roentgenogram readings, the average was 18.5% for "false negatives" and 3.4% for "false positives." This variability is in the same order of magnitude as that found in previous investigations of similar roentgenographic examinations. The same roentgenograms were presented in a new random order, in corresponding pairs, and read as stereoscopic roentgenograms. There was an improvement in the average for both the false negatives, (which was reduced from 18.5% to 14.9%) and the false positives (which was reduced from 3.4% to 2.5%). It is considered that these results show that the use of stereoscopic reading has a definite advantage, in improvement of reliability, over the use of single-roentgenogram reading.

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