Citation

Krupinski EA, Schartz KM, Van Tassell MS, Madsen MT, Caldwell RT, Berbaum KS. J. Med. Imaging. (Bellingham) 2017; 4(3): 035504.

Affiliation

University of Iowa, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, Department of Radiology, Iowa City, Iowa, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation)

DOI

10.1117/1.JMI.4.3.035504

PMID

28983495

PMCID

PMC5621368

Abstract

Our goal was to ascertain how fatigue affects performance in reading computed tomography (CT) examinations of patients with multiple injuries. CT images with multiple fractures from a previous study of satisfaction of search (SOS) were read by radiologists after a day of clinical work. Performance in this study with fatigued readers was compared to a previous study in which readers were not fatigued. Detection accuracy for obvious injuries was not affected by fatigue, but accuracy for subtle fractures was reduced ([Formula: see text]). An SOS effect on decision thresholds was evident mirroring recent studies. Without fatigue, readers spent more time interpreting and reporting findings as the number of the injuries increased. When fatigued, readers did not increase reading time as fracture number increased. Without fractures, reading time for not-fatigued and fatigued readers was the same ([Formula: see text]) but was significant ([Formula: see text]) with an added subtle fracture. The difference increased with a major injury ([Formula: see text]) and increased further with both a major injury and subtle fracture ([Formula: see text]). Fatigue and multiple abnormalities have independent effects on detection performance but do interact in determining search time.

Language: en

Keywords

errors; fatigue; interpretation time; satisfaction of search