Seminars in ultrasound, CT, and MR
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Semin. Ultrasound CT MR · Aug 2012
Errors in the radiological evaluation of the alimentary tract: part I.
Physicians are subjected to an increasing number of medical malpractice claims, and radiology is one of the specialties most liable to claims of medical negligence The etiology of radiological error is multifactorial, deriving by poor technique, failures of perception, lack of knowledge, and misjudgments. Reducing errors will improve patient care, may reduce costs, and will improve the image of the hospital. The main reason for studying medical errors is to try to prevent them. This article focuses on the spectrum of diagnostic errors in radiology, including a classification of the errors, and highlights the malpractice issues in methods for functional alimentary tract examination: swallowing act study, 3-dimensional endoanal ultrasound, defecography, and defecography in magnetic resonance.
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There is evidence that emergencies in pregnancy are subject to mismanagement; however, the percentage of error in the diagnosis of emergencies in pregnancies has not been studied in-depth. The purpose of this article is to review the most common emergencies in pregnancies, focusing the attention on errors in images. The topics covered are divided into gynecological and nongynecological, and for each pathology, the possible errors in the diagnostic pathway, the possible technical errors in the execution of the examination, and in the end, the possible errors in interpretation of the images have been dealt with. These last two entities are often connected, in the fact that a substandard examination can stem interpretation errors, but the systemization of the error is a valid approach in helping to learn from these errors, reducing the possibility that the same error can represent itself.
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Although the use of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) has increased the diagnostic quality by reducing the number of missed diagnoses in polytraumatized patients, errors remain a common phenomenon in emergency room setting. MDCT errors, contributing more commonly to missed or delayed diagnoses in polytrauma patients, are diagnostic errors commonly related to perceptual errors or to nonvisual errors. ⋯ Knowledge of common patterns of error is the most effective way to avoid future errors. The purpose of this article is to highlight the most frequent types of diagnostic errors in evaluating with MDCT of polytrauma patients.