Agreement Analysis of Brain CT Scan findings Read by Emergency Medicine and Radiology Physicians in Patients with Head Trauma

The aim of this study is to determine the correlation between interpretation of traumatic brain CT scans between emergency medicine and radiology physicians.

This was an analytic cross-sectional study undertaken at Hafte-Tir Hospital in Tehran, Iran. A total of 72 brain CT scans were read by emergency medicine and radiology physicians during the first 6 months of 1389. The interpretations were compared. We used SPSS software for analysis and data from both groups were compared with the kappa coefficient.

The interpretation of emergency medicine and radiology residents from 49 brain CT scans were similar (68.1%). The kappa coefficient was calculated to be 0.596. (P=0.031)

Despite the fact that the emergency medicine residency is somewhat new in Iran, the emergency medicine specialists could increase their knowledge of relevant branches of medicine such as radiology. Because of the differences in interpretation, it is necessary to have additional education and radiology courses in an emergency medicine residency program. These courses can invite experienced emergency medicine or radiology department physicians.