Study of inter- and intra-observer reproducibility in the interpretation of [18F]choline PET/CT examinations in patients suffering from biochemically recurrent prostate cancer following curative treatment

Pegard, Clothilde; Gallazzini-Crépin, Céline; Giai, Joris; Dubreuil, Julien; Caoduro, Cécile; Desruet, Marie-Dominique; Roux, Julie; Calizzano, Alex; Fagret, Daniel; Lamesa, Chloé; Boulahdour, Hatem; Vuillez, Jean-Philippe

doi:10.1186/s13550-014-0025-7

EJNMMI Research

Table 2 Inter-observer reproducibility of binary interpretations (negative/benign/non-significant or positive/malignant/high-risk)

From: Study of inter- and intra-observer reproducibility in the interpretation of [¹⁸F]choline PET/CT examinations in patients suffering from biochemically recurrent prostate cancer following curative treatment

Locations	Inter-observer agreement at first interpretation
	kappa [confidence interval]
	Two senior physicians	Two junior physicians	All four nuclear physicians
Prostate and prostatic bed	0.337 [0.115 to 0.559]	0.661 [0.473 to 0.848]	0.550 [0.425 to 0.692]
Prostate	0.328 [0.096 to 0.561]	0.643 [0.444 to 0.842]	0.553 [0.425 to 0.693]
Prostatectomy bed	NA	NA	NA
Pelvic LN	0.921 [0.812 to 1.000]	0.889 [0.766 to 1.000]	0.892 [0.788 to 0.975]
R hemi-pelvic LN	1.000 [1.000 to 1.000]	0.777 [0.569 to 0.896]	0.833 [0.626 to 0.958]
L hemi-pelvic LN	0.795 [0.571 to 1.000]	0.760 [0.536 to 0.984]	0.819 [0.600 to 0.942]
R periprostatic LN	0.792 [0.396 to 1.000]	1.000 [1.000 to 1.000]	0.885 [−0.004 to 1.000]
L periprostatic LN	0.000 [0.000 to 1.000]	0.000 [0.000 to 1.000]	0.212 [−0.008 to 0.328]
R medial iliac LN	0.550 [0.107 to 0.993]	0.550 [0.107 to 0.993]	0.646 [0.165 to 0.937]
L medial iliac LN	−0.023 [−0.070 to 0.025]	0.487 [−0.113 to 1.000]	0.362 [−0.008 to 0.662]
R lateral iliac LN and bifurcation iliac LN	0.880 [0.648 to 1.000]	0.815 [0.568 to 1.000]	0.774 [0.494 to 0.948]
L lateral iliac LN and bifurcation iliac LN	0.659 [0.036 to 1.000]	0.483 [−0.131 to 1.000]	0.559 [−0.021 to 1.000]
R common iliac LN	0.848 [0.557 to 1.000]	0.677 [0.381 to 0.973]	0.669 [0.269 to 0.891]
L common iliac LN	0.699 [0.379 to 1.000]	0.838 [0.620 to 1.000]	0.806 [0.587 to 0.965]
Inguinal LN	NA	NA	NA
Lumboaortic LN	0.900 [0.707 to 1.000]	0.815 [0.568 to 1.000]	0.888 [0.646 to 1.000]
Mediastinal LN	NA	NA	NA
Bone	0.712 [0.445 to 0.978]	0.608 [0.323 to 0.893]	0.703 [0.407 to 0.881]
PET overall conclusion	0.455 [0.235 to 0.674]	0.537 [0.288 to 0.786]	0.499 [0.350 to 0.652]

The inter-observer reproducibility is indicated by kappa (κ) (and confidence interval) for different anatomic regions. NA indicates categories where the sign was not found at all and therefore the kappa could not be calculated. κ > 0.80 is excellent; 0.61 < κ < 0.80 is good; 0.60 < κ < 0.41 is moderate; κ < 0.40 is average. LN, lymph nodes; R, right; L, left.

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