Abstract
Purpose: The Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Screening implements a certification system for interpretation assistance by radiological technologists.
We assessed the category judgment of image reading support by radiological technologists and the category judgment of image interpretation by physicians using "Categorized Criteria for X-Ray Image Reading of the Population-Based Gastric Cancer Screening" of the Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Screening.
Materials and Methods: We recruited 30 radiological technologists who were gastric cancer screening special technologists and 12 gastroenterologists engaged in the interpretation of gastric X-ray images for cancer screening. Gastric X-ray images of individuals who were later confirmed to have either malignant (n = 20) or non-malignant disease (n = 20) were used randomly to determine the accuracy of categorization.
In the case of malignancy, the interpretation sensitivity was judged to be correct based on the judgment of category 3b or higher. Then, in the case of non-malignant case, it was judged that the specificity of interpretation was correct in category 3a and below.
Results: Physicians' interpretation category judgment had a correct diagnosis rate of 66.3%, a sensitivity of 65.0% (61.5% for early-stage cancer and 71.4% for advanced cancer), and a specificity of 75.0%. Meanwhile, technologists' category judgment had an accuracy of 70.0%, a sensitivity of 85.0% (76.9% for early-stage cancer and 85.7% for advanced cancer), and a specificity of 60.0%.
Conclusion: There was no significant difference between physicians and radiological technologists in the judgment category classification.
