Preliminary reports in the emergency department: is a subspecialist radiologist more accurate than a radiology resident?

Rationale And Objectives: To determine whether emergency department (ED) preliminary reports rendered by subspecialist attending radiologists who are reading outside their field of expertise are more accurate than reports rendered by radiology residents, and to compare error rates between radiologists and nonradiologists in the ED setting.

Materials And Methods: The study was performed at a large academic medical center with a busy ED. An electronic preliminary report generator was used in the ED to capture preliminary interpretations rendered in a clinical setting by radiology residents, junior attendings (within 2 years of taking their oral boards), senior attendings, and ED clinicians between August 1999 and November 2004.

Contrast dynamics during CT pulmonary angiogram: analysis of an inspiration associated artifact.

Objective: Several artifacts have been observed during contrast-enhanced CT of the pulmonary arteries. We describe a physiological artifact caused by a transient interruption of the contrast column in the pulmonary arteries associated with inspiration immediately prior to imaging. This results from a variable inflow of unopacified blood from the inferior vena cava (IVC).