[Status of international radiological publications and archive utilization in Turkey]

To investigate the use of radiological technology and archive utilization in two sampled international radiological journals and radiology clinics in Turkey, and to explore the impact of these findings on radiological publications.

Randomly selected 22 issues of AJR and Radiology, 1037 articles in total, were reviewed. The type of article, radiological technique, country of origin, use of advanced technology and archiving were defined for each article. Additionally, a questionnaire, investigating implementation of various radiological devices, archiving and their technical features, was posted to the chairmen of the radiology departments in Turkey.

Most of the articles (61.4%) originated in US. Studies from Turkey constituted 0.9% of the articles. This ratio was 2% for France, which has almost the same population as Turkey. Magnetic resonance imaging was used in 27.4% of cases. Based on our definition criteria, advanced technology and archiving were used in 19% and 32%, respectively. Data returns of the questionnaire were obtained from 17 of 45 (38%) radiology clinics. Responding clinics had conventional radiography, B mode ultrasound and conventional computed tomography. Archiving of all radiological examinations, excluding plain radiography, was performed in one center while only interesting radiological images and variations were stored in 8 departments. Implementation of archiving was reported sufficient in three clinics, partly sufficient in ten clinics and insufficient in four clinics. Archiving was performed by medical doctors in most of the cases (53%). The leading problems of archiving were technical and economical insufficiencies (82%).

Archiving is more commonly required than utilization of advanced technology for international radiological publications. The rate of articles originating from Turkey was lower compared to some countries having the same population as Turkey. The lack of sufficient technical infrastructure and shortage of staff may be important reasons for such differences.