%0 Journal Article
%T The value of structured radiology reports to categorize intracranial metastases following radiation therapy
%A John Benson
%A Lei Zhang
%A Matthew Burgstahler
%A Matthew Rischall
%J The Neuroradiology Journal
%@ 2385-1996
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1971400919845365
%X Radiology descriptions of intracranial metastases following radiotherapy are often imprecise. This study sought to improve such reports by creating and disseminating a structured template that encourages discrete categorization of intracranial lesions. Following initiation of the structured template, a retrospective review assessed patients with intracranial metastases that underwent radiotherapy, comparing ¡®pre-template¡¯ with ¡®post-template¡¯ reports. A total of 139 patients were included; 94 patients (67.6%) were imaged pre-template, 45 (32.4%) post-template. Reports were assessed for discrete versus non-specific descriptions of lesions: ¡®(presumed) new metastases¡¯, ¡®treated metastases¡¯, and ¡®indeterminate lesions¡¯. Non-specific language was subdivided based on the type of lesion(s) described: e.g. ¡®stable enhancing foci¡¯ was deemed a non-specific description of ¡®treated metastases¡¯. Non-specific descriptions of lesions were used in 25/94 reports (26.6%) pre-template, and eight reports (17.8%) post-template. No significant difference was found in the frequency of inappropriate/ambiguous descriptions of intracranial lesions following template initiation (P£¿=£¿0.52). However, only 27/45 (60.0%) of the reports in the post-template time period used the structured report; the other reports were written as free prose. Of the reports that did use the structured template, the authors used significantly less ambiguous language structured template (P£¿=£¿0.02). When utilized, a structured report template resulted in decreased non-specific descriptions and improved discrete characterization of intracranial metastases in patients treated with radiation. However, the frequency of non-specific language usage before and after template initiation was unchanged, probably due to poor compliance with template utilization
%K Intracranial metastases
%K radiation therapy
%K structured report
%K structured template
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1971400919845365