Effect of a tele-training programme on radiographers in the interpretation of CT colonography.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the performance of radiographers in CT colonography (CTC) after a tele-training programme, supervised by 2 experienced radiologists.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Five radiographers underwent training in CTC using a tele-training programme mainly based on the interpretation of 75 training cases performed in the novice department. To evaluate the educational performance, each radiographer was tested on 20 test cases with 27 lesions >6mm (12: 6-9 mm; 15: >10mm). Sensitivity, specificity and PPV for polyps ≥ 6 mm and ≥ 10 mm were calculated with point estimates and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). The results were compared by comparing 95% CI with a 5% significance level.

RESULTS

In the training cases overall per-polyp sensitivity was 57% (95% CI 46.1-67.9) and 69.1% (95% CI 50.6-87.5) for lesions ≥ 6 mm and ≥ 10 mm, respectively. Overall per patient sensitivity, specificity and PPV were 86.4% (95% CI 76.7-96.1), 85.4% (95% CI 77-93.9) and 78.3% (95% CI 64.9-91.7), respectively. In the test cases overall per-polyp sensitivity was 80.7% (95% CI 69.5-92) and 94.7% (95% CI 85.6-100 ×) for lesions ≥ 6 mm and ≥ 10 mm, respectively. Overall per patient sensitivity, specificity and PPV were 92.9% (95% CI 83.1-100 ×), 64% (95% CI 13.1-100 ×) and 87.8% (95% CI 71.7-100 ×), respectively. There was a statistically significant improvement in per-polyp sensitivity for lesions ≥ 6 mm in the test cases. No statistically significant differences were found in per patient sensitivity, specificity and PPV, but there was an improvement.

CONCLUSION

This training programme based on tele-training obtained good performance of radiographers in detecting tumoral lesions in CTC.