Intra- and interobserver variability in the radiologic evaluation of congestive heart failure on erect portable chest films

This paper studies intra- and interobserver variability in the radiologic evaluation of congestive heart failure (CHF). Two radiologists and independently evaluated 50 portable erect chest films for the presence or absence of nine radiologic findings associated with CHF and for the presence or absence of CHF itself. This was repeated 2 weeks later. Answers were scored according to the degree of certainty for each question. Data were analyzed with use of the weighted κ statistic, which measures concordance while accounting for partial agreement and chance agreement