Clinical evaluation of MDCT multi-postprocessing techniques for diagnosing small bowel obstruction / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the clinical effects of multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) multi-postprocessing techniques in the evaluation of small bowel obstruction (SBO). Methods Clinical and MDCT imaging data of 90 patients with SBO were collected. Three radiologists respectively applied two protocols (protocol 1 consisted of conventional axial and coronal reformations and protocol 2 involved integration of multiple post-processing techniques) to image post-processing and interpretation of patients' MDCT volume data, and completed condition evaluation reports. Two protocols were compared regarding relevant diagnostic self-confidence, clinical satisfaction, clinical treatment decisions, and radiological adverse events. Results In the same protocol, the diagnostic self-confidence showed no significant difference between three radiologists for any evaluation parameter (P>0.05), but the diagnostic self-confidence of three radiologists was significantly higher in the protocol 2 than in the protocol 1 (P<0.01). The clinical satisfaction was also significantly higher in the protocol 2 than in the protocol 1 for all the individual and compositive illness assessment reports (P<0.01). After protocol 2 was applied clinically, it changed the previous treatment decisions based on protocol 1 in 11 patients (12.22%). About radiological adverse events, regardless of minor, major, or the sum of them, protocol 1 was significantly higher than protocol 2 (P<0.05). Conclusion Integration of multi-postprocessing techniques can improve diagnostic self-confidence and clinical satisfaction of MDCT for assessing SBO and effectively reduce radiological adverse events.