Comparison of inter-observer reproducibility between conventional chest radiography and AMBER in the evaluation of silicosis.

The aims of this study were to test inter-observer and intraobserver agreement in the diagnosis of silicosis using conventional chest radiography and AMBER. One hundred and fifteen patients underwent chest x-rays and AMBER for the diagnosis of silicosis. Five readers blindly and independently evaluated the radiograms with standard ILO/UC classification scales. Reproducibility was assessed using ANOVA repeated measurements methods. AMBER showed a better technical quality of radiograms than conventional chest x-rays; interobserver reproducibility was high and similar (R = 0.75); intraobserver agreement between chest x-rays and AMBER was high ranging from 0.62 to 0.86 for the 5 readers. Notwithstanding the absence of standards for profusion classification, the interobserver reproducibility with AMBER was similar to that obtained with chest x-rays. Moreover, the intraobserver agreement in profusion scoring between AMBER and chest radiography was high, suggesting that AMBER and chest radiography provided similar information in the evaluation of silicosis.