Clinical Consequences of Misinterpretations of Neuroradiologic CT Scans by On-Call Radiology Residents

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Studies have looked at the accuracy of radiologic inter-pretations by radiology residents as compared with staff radiologists with regard to emergency room plain films, emergency room body CT scans, and trauma head CT scans; however, to our knowledge, no study has evaluated on-call resident interpretations of all types of neuro-radiologic CT scans. Both as a part of our departmental quality control program and to address concerns of clinical services about misinterpretation of neuroradiologic CT scans by on-call radiology residents, we evaluated the frequency of incorrect preliminary interpretations of neuroradiologic CT scans by on-call radiology residents and the effect of such misinterpreta-tions on clinical management and patient outcome. METHODS: As determined by the staff neuroradiologist the next day, all potentially clini-cally significant changes to preliminary reports of emergency neuroradiologic CT scans ren-dered by on-call radiology residents were recorded over a 9-month period. A panel of neuro-radiologists reviewed and graded all the changed cases by consensus. An emergency department staff physician reviewed medical records of all submitted cases to determine clinical conse-quences of the misinterpretations