Nearly 1 in 7 Abdominal Imaging Patients Had a Diagnostic Error When Follow-Up Imaging Was Recommended

Retrospective QI study (n=185) found diagnostic errors in 14.6% (95% CI 10.2–20.4%) of adults undergoing abdominal imaging with a radiologist-recommended additional imaging request. 'Delay in performing ordered test(s)' was the leading contributory factor. Structured annotation…

• Design: retrospective, single academic health system, IRB-approved QI study; 185 adult patients with abdominal imaging exams in 2022 where additional imaging was recommended — a selected, higher-risk subgroup, limiting generalizability to all abdominal imaging.
• After 4 iterative training rounds, annotator agreement with the radiologist-expert gold standard rose from 61.1% (33/54) to 80% (40/50), chi-square p=0.04, suggesting structured annotation taxonomy is teachable and reproducible.
• Key limitation: single-center retrospective design with a pre-selected cohort (only patients with recommended additional imaging), so the 14.6% error rate likely overestimates the rate across unselected abdominal imaging encounters.

RadPigeon summaries are original and for information only. They are not clinical advice.