Evaluation of the medical imaging procedures for the diagnosis of liver diseases: Part I. Experiments on the effectiveness of diagnostic image reading in 93 cases collected in Japan

In 1989 the IAEA published the Atlas of Liver Imaging (IAEA-TECDOC-501). This report is a large compilation of the ''Evaluation of nuclear medicine imaging procedures for the diagnosis of liver diseases'' project conducted over the 5-year period from 1984 to 1988. The purpose of the project was to assess the actual state of nuclear medicine diagnostic technical know-how in the management of liver diseases in the countries of Asia. The work related to the project was conducted in three phases: first, on the investigation of the state of maintenance of the diagnostic equipment of nuclear medicine (gamma cameras or scintillation scanners) in each participating country, second, on the use of the phantoms for nuclear medicine specifically prepared and distributed by the IAEA, to assess objectively the detection capabilities of nuclear medicine equipment in routine diagnostic use, and third, collection of scintigrams of patients who have actually been diagnosed by nuclear medicine procedure from each country accompanied by clinical information, including the definite diagnosis, information on the imaging conditions etc. The physicians in each country participated in the interpretation and assessment of specific features. The atlas cited above, included the results of the 2nd and 3rd surveys, and, in addition, described images of typical cases used in the third experiment. At present, liver diseases still pose a threat to human health and welfare. The diagnostic technology has shown continuous expansion. Nuclear medicine (NM) is being used practically in all countries, including developed countries. In addition, ultrasound tomography (US) and X-ray CT are used in parallel. MRI is also being used in Japan, the United States and most of the developed and developing countries. In view of these situations, the IAEA extended its previous cooperative research one step further, deciding to survey the current status of the diagnosis of liver diseases by NM and US in the countries participating in Phase 2 of the above-mentioned project. In September 1989, a preliminary meeting was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and ultimately it was decided to execute this new project using methods similar to those employed in Phase 1, and Japan was given the responsibility to conduct actual case interpretation testing. A total of 10 groups from respective countries, Bangladesh, the People's Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, have participated in this project