Radiologists were able to reach "nearly perfect" diagnoses for lumbar spine MRIs if they get patent-reported symptom information, according to an Oct. 29 study in Radiology.
Four things to know:
1. The single-center study involved 240 participants who did pre-MRI symptom questionnaires between May 2022 and February 2023.
2. Radiologists recorded pain generators and created two study groups by alternating interpretations — with and without symptom results.
3. Agreements on pain generators were "almost perfect" for interpretations with the self-reported questionnaire compared to specialists' diagnoses.
4. Diagnostic certainty was also higher for MRI interpretations using the questionnaire information.