[Teleradiography for diagnosis in emergency care. A clinical experience]

This work was aimed at evaluating the role of teleradiology in a diagnostic emergency room. Over a 6-month period (September 1991-February 1992), 2,000 films made in the emergency room were transmitted to a resident radiologist 1 kilometer away: each examination included patient's data (sex, age, site of trauma, etc.) which were sent by the admitting physician. A teleradiology system (Lumiscan 100 AT&T and Philips) was used. Films were digitized on a 1024 x 1024 x 8-bit image matrix and then transmitted over a dedicated standard phone line to the Department of Radiology. The autograph report was sent by fax to the emergency room. Four radiologists, of varying experience, independently reviewed a sample of 179 digitized radiographs and, 30 days later, the original films on a conventional light-box. The results appear to be encouraging because no significant differences were observed in the performance of any of the radiologists. Good video/films agreement was obtained, together with high sensitivity and specificity. A good result was the relatively small number (0.4% of all examined cases) of false negatives diagnosed on faxed films relative to the actual clinical diagnosis.