Radiographers' professional knowledge regarding parameters and safety issues in plain radiography: a questionnaire survey

Clinical indications for plain abdominal radiographs: A survey study among radiographers

Background

Abdominal pain is a common complaint in the Emergency Department. Radiographers' knowledge and practices regarding clinical indications for performing abdominal examinations are crucial in the results radiographs produced.

Aim

To determine the knowledge and practices of radiographers regarding the clinical indications for performing radiographic examinations of the abdomen.

Setting

Four public hospitals in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted, using a convenience, all-inclusive sample of n = 85 radiographers. A hard copy self-administered questionnaire was distributed between February and June 2020. Descriptive (mean and standard deviations) and inferential (chi² test) statistics were generated using IBM® SPSS® version 26.0 software package.

Results

Knowledge of clinical indications had a mean of 59.41. All four demographics (age, years of experience, attended a short course and attended pattern recognition course) were significantly associated with overall knowledge. Additionally, short course attendance was significantly associated with most practice items, and two knowledge items (which views are done for perforation; and which view(s) demonstrate a stab abdomen). Pattern recognition was significantly associated with one knowledge item (which views are regarded as an acute abdomen).

Conclusion

Despite the lack of short courses and pattern recognition courses, radiographers' knowledge of clinical indications was good (>50%). Continuous training, accessible protocols for performing clinical indications for plain abdominal radiographic examinations for radiographers, audit, feedback and reminders to enhance protocol adherence are recommended.

Contribution

The study findings could be used to enhance knowledge and practices regarding clinical indications for plain abdominal radiographic examinations among radiographers.

Knowledge of CT exposure parameters among Norwegian student radiographers

BACKGROUND

Improvements in the competency levels of student radiographers in computed tomography examinations (CT) are important due to the increasing number of these examinations being undertaken in imaging departments. The present study assesses the knowledge of student radiographers regarding CT exposure parameters.

METHODS

The level of knowledge related to CT exposure parameters was evaluated using a twenty-one-item questionnaire that was distributed to final-year student radiographers. The questionnaire consisted of questions around CT exposure parameters and either allowed respondents to answer "true," or "false" or choose a response from a range of responses where only one answer was correct. Correct answers were given one mark, while no mark was given for an incorrect answer. The score out of possible 21 was converted to a percentage, with a higher percentage signifying greater knowledge.

RESULTS

Seventy-two students completed and returned the questionnaire, resulting in a 71% response rate. The mean score was 53%. Only 33% of students correctly identified that kilovoltage peak (kVp) should be increased when patients have metallic implants, and milliampere seconds (mAs) should be increased as body part thickness increases. No one answered all the questions correctly. There was no significant knowledge difference between students who had CT facilities on campus and those that did not.

CONCLUSION

Overall, student radiographers' knowledge of CT exposure parameters was reported to be satisfactory.

Quantification of Osteosarcoma Mineralization on Plain Radiographs - Novel Software Applications to Assess Response to Chemotherapy

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor in children. Patient survival with osteosarcoma is heavily influenced by the response to chemotherapy, measured by tumor necrosis upon histological analysis. Unfortunately, response is not measurable until the time of surgery and therefore modifications to chemotherapy protocol are only made after several weeks of treatment and surgery. Osteosarcoma tumors often demonstrate increased mineralization following the onset of chemotherapy. Furthermore, it has been hypothesized that this mineralization-apparent on radiographs-may correlate with chemotherapy response, however, this has not been demonstrated with qualitative visual evaluation. The ability to non-invasively measure a patient's response to chemotherapy using plain radiographs, which is currently included in the normal clinical workflow, would guide the medical oncologists to tailor treatment for patients with osteosarcoma. After obtaining appropriate multi-center institutional review board approvals, we identified 31patients that possess a pair of pre-and post-chemotherapy radiograph along with the necrosis measure. The images were digitized scans of physical radiographs between 1999 and 2013. Software was designed to measure the signal intensities in the tumor, a region of the soft tissue, air, and healthy bone. The tumor signals were normalized based on the random combination of air, soft tissue or bone, by subtraction or division. The differences in tumor signal between pre-and post-image were plotted against the percent necrosis determined by histological analysis. Different combinations of the normalization methods were compared 2based on the slope, coefficient of determination (R2) and Pearson correlation coefficient (ρ).

An investigation of Saudi Arabian MR radiographers' knowledge and confidence in relation to MR image-quality-related errors

OBJECTIVE

To investigate MR radiographers' current knowledge base and confidence level in relation to quality-related errors within MR images.

METHOD

Thirty-five MR radiographers within 16 MRI departments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) independently reviewed a prepared set of 25 MR images, naming the error, specifying the error-correction strategy, scoring how confident they were in recognising this error and suggesting a correction strategy by using a scale of 1-100. The datasets were obtained from MRI departments in the KSA to represent the range of images which depicted excellent, acceptable and poor image quality.

RESULTS

The findings demonstrated a low level of radiographer knowledge in identifying the type of quality errors and when suggesting an appropriate strategy to rectify those errors. The findings show that only (n = 7) 20% of the radiographers could correctly name what the quality errors were in 70% of the dataset, and none of the radiographers correctly specified the error-correction strategy in more than 68% of the MR datasets. The confidence level of radiography participants in their ability to state the type of image quality errors was significantly different (p < 0.001) for who work in different hospital types.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study suggest there is a need to establish a national association for MR radiographers to monitor training and the development of postgraduate MRI education in Saudi Arabia to improve the current status of the MR radiographers' knowledge and direct high quality service delivery.