Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24258464›Full record

ArticleThe British journal of radiology2014

Reduced z-axis coverage in multidetector-row CT pulmonary angiography decreases radiation dose and diagnostic accuracy of alternative diseases.

N Michalakis, C Keyzer, V De Maertelaer, D Tack, P A Gevenois

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In one paragraph

Article in The British journal of radiology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
0.3field-weighted citation impact, top 35% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

N MichalakisDepartment of Radiology, Hôpital Erasme, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
C Keyzer
V De Maertelaer
D Tack
P A Gevenois
Erasmus Hospital · BEUniversité Libre de Bruxelles · BEEpicura · BE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo investigate the effect of a two-third reduction of the scanned length (i.e. 10 cm) on diagnosis of both pulmonary embolism (PE) and alternative diseases.

methods247 consecutive patients suspected of acute PE had a CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) of the thorax (standard length, L). Based on this acquisition, a second set of images was created to obtain a scan length of 10 cm caudally to the aortic arch (l). Images were anonymized, randomized and interpreted by two independent readers. The quality of enhancement, the presence of PE and the possible alternative and/or complementary diagnoses were recorded. A McNemar exact test investigated differences in discrepancies between readers and between scan lengths.

results57 (23%) patients had an acute PE. Among l sets, PE was missed by both readers in one (1.8%) patient, because the unique clot was localized in a subsegmental artery out of the 10-cm range. There were discrepancies between L and l sets in 9 (3.6%) and 11 (4.5%) patients, by Readers 1 and 2 (p=0.820), respectively. Discrepancies between the readers of L sets and those between both sets were not different regardless of the reader (p>0.99). There were discrepancies between both sets for alternative and/or complementary diagnoses in 43 (17.2%) patients.

conclusionAlthough its performance in diagnosing PE is maintained, CTPA should not be restricted to a range of 10 cm centred over the pulmonary hilum, because alternative and/or complementary diagnoses could be missed. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: (1) A 10-cm CTPA acquisition reduces the radiation dose by two-thirds as compared with a standard one, but does not impair the accuracy for the diagnosis of PE. (2) Significant alternative diagnoses are missed in 17.2% of patients when reducing the acquisition height to 10 cm.

Indexed as

Radiation DosageAngiographyHumansLungPulmonary EmbolismReproducibility of ResultsTomography, X-Ray Computed

Identifiers

PMID24258464
PMCPMC3898975
OpenAlexW2073983084

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.