Tuesday, December 3 | 10:20 a.m.-10:30 a.m. | T3-SSMK05-6 | Room E353B
A musculoskeletal infection reporting and data system (MSKI-RADS) is a reliable way to standardize report terms and manage imaging findings of peripheral extremity infections, according to research that will be presented Tuesday morning.
A team led by Angela He of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, developed and validated an MSKI-RADS system, finding that it reduced confusion and minimized usage of misleading terms.
"Current terms used to describe MRI findings for musculoskeletal (MSK) infections are nonspecific and inconsistent," the group noted. "Thus, it is critical to create a RADS system for reporting them."
The investigators designed the MSKI-RADS metric and tested it on 208 adult patients who underwent MRI for suspected extremity infections between June 2015 and May 2019. Twenty musculoskeletal radiologists from 13 institutions validated the system, and the researchers assessed inter-reader agreement, sensitivity, and accuracy of final diagnoses.
The team found moderate agreement among the 20 readers. The highest sensitivity of the system was for MSKI-RADS I and nonspecific bony lesions, at 88.7%. MSKI-RADS V demonstrated a sensitivity of 72.6%, while overall diagnostic accuracy using MSKI-RADS scores was 64.9% -- higher than final reader diagnoses without using the metric, which was 54.8%.
"MSKI-RADS offers the potential to improve interdisciplinary communication when treating patients with peripheral extremity infections," the group concluded in an abstract about the work. "Its use can aid in efficient management decisions, improve patient outcomes, and better longitudinal collection of data for future research."
Head over to the learning center to find out more about the research.
