Fast thoracic MRI versus chest x-ray (San Donato)

This cohort comes from a retrospective reader study at IRCCS Policlinico San Donato and the University of Milan. The authors asked whether a fast thoracic MRI, an axial half-Fourier single-shot turbo spin-echo (HASTE) series, finds the common chest findings at least as often as a chest x-ray taken from the same patient within a week. A restricted Zenodo record holds the data behind the paper; it lists no files and does not say whether images are included.

Composition

287 patients with a median age of 53 years, each with an axial HASTE-MRI and a chest x-ray fewer than 7 days apart. Sex distribution and clinical indications are not given in the abstract.

Acquisition

Each patient had one axial HASTE series of the thorax and one chest x-ray. Scanner, field strength, x-ray projections and protocol details are in the full paper, which is not openly available, and are left out here.

Annotations

Readers scored five findings on both techniques: pulmonary nodules, pulmonary consolidation, pleural effusion, cardiac enlargement and aortic dilation. The study reports detection rates per technique together with inter-reader and inter-technique agreement as kappa. Pleural effusion was found in 55 patients on MRI and 40 on x-ray, aortic dilation in 51 and 28, cardiac enlargement in 130 and 138, consolidation in 24 and 22, and nodules in 5 on both. No reference standard such as CT is described in the abstract.

Known limitations

• Access is restricted with no published license, terms or request process; the content of the record is unknown.
• Retrospective selection of patients who had both exams, from one hospital group in Italy.
• Detection rates are reader findings, not confirmed diagnoses.