[en] Purpose: To determine the number of radiologists who currently have Internet access, their use patterns on the Internet for Radiology purposes, the web sites they would recommend, and the potential site access to the Internet that they would like to see in the future. In addition, this study analyzed the best way to find nationwide radiological sites and their content. Materials and Methods: In a nationwide survey, 854 Austrian radiologist were asked to fill out and return a questionnaire about Internet access, current problems, current and future use, which web site they recommend, and about the use of e-mail. Next, the available nationwide radiological sites were searched with seven major search engines using 37 different keywords, as well as by category search, and by searching for links on the homepages of the radiological departments of all Universities of Austria. Then, the offered information of the founded pages was classified in categories. Results: Of the 210 (24.6%) radiologists who returned the questionnaire, 154 (73%) had Internet access. Time expenditure was considered the main problem using the Internet. The Internet was used for literature research by 69% of the radiologists with Internet access, for e-mail by 60%, and for congress information by 57%. In future, 43% would like to read electronic journals more often and 39% would like to use the web more intensively for scientific congresses. At the present time, we found 17 radiological web sites in Austria. The most promising way to find these sites was to use the search engines Alta Vista and Hotbot. Fifteen (88%) sites offered information for patients, seven (41%) for radiologists, five (29%) for students, and four (24%) for researchers. Summary: Many radiologists in Austria already have Internet access, although time expenditure was considered the main problem with Internet use. Survey responses showed a need for electronic journals. To our point of view, Universities and radiological societies are urged to publish journals electronically on the Web. Alta Vista and Hotbot were the best search engines for radiological sites in our setting, and a careful reading of the specific search engine's instructions is recommended. In our experience, Web pages with clear structure, small file size, precise HTML keyword editing, and page titles, facilitate more accurate discovery of specific sites. In addition, there seems to be a need for regular publication of reviewed radiological link collections and the establishment of standards for teleconsulting

[en] At our hospital, an average MRI examination comprises 170 images. These examinations were evaluated exclusively on digital reporting systems with two high-resolution monitors for a period of 1 year. A retrospective analysis of this reporting method in comparision with films on a conventional viewing wall was performed with subjective and objective data. Radiologists and technicians were requested to evaluate the system on a subjective scale from 1 to 5 for seven topics (image analysis, inspection, time for reporting, handling, comparison with previous reports, quality of PC laser prints, training period). Moreover, personal interviews were conducted and protocols taken. Patient and image frequency, film costs, data transfer time and amount of system failures were evaluated as objective data. The most important results were: Two thirds of the film checking radiologists prefer the conventional viewing walls over the computer monitors. However, 70% of the residents prefer using the computer monitor for reporting. Seventy percent of the interviewed radiologists considered comparison with former examinations on film very difficult. Digitizing of former MRI examinations was not a convincing method; printing on a standard PC laser printer was considered to yield insufficient quality. The different acceptance between radiologists and residents seems to be related to different experiences. The reduction in film costs (48.6%) will improve further with complete PACS installation in the whole hospital. Data transfer rates are still poor; further improvement of network performance is necessary for convenient work. One whole MRI examination and report could be stored on CD-ROM for a cost of less than 2 euros. This could be a future means of cheap archiving and documentation suitable for viewing on any PC with DICOM III viewer. Images and reports could stay with the patient as in the past. (orig.)

[en] The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the use of a digital continuous speech recognition (CSR) in the field of radiology could lead to relevant time savings in generating a report. A CSR system (SP6000, Philips, Eindhoven, The Netherlands) for German was used to transform fluently spoken sentences into text. Two radiologists dictated a total of 450 reports on five radiological topics. Two typists edited those reports by means of conventional typing using a text editor (WinWord 6.0, Microsoft, Redmond, Wash.) installed on an IBM-compatible personal computer (PC). The same reports were generated using the CSR system and the performance of both systems was then evaluated by comparing the time needed to generate the reports and the error rates of both systems. In addition, the error rate of the CSR system and the time needed to create the reports was evaluated. The mean error rate for the CSR system was 5.5 %, and the mean error rate for conventional typing was 0.4 %. Reports edited with the CSR, on average, were generated 19 % faster compared with the conventional text-editing method. However, the amount of error rates and time savings were different and depended on topics, speakers, and typists. Using CSR the maximum time saving achieved was 28 % for the topic sonography. The CSR system was never slower, under any circumstances, than conventional typing on a PC. When compared with a conventional manual typing method, the CSR system proved to be useful in a clinical setting and saved time in generating radiological reports. The amount of time saved, however, greatly depended on the performance of the typist, the speaker, and on stored vocabulary provided by the CSR system. (orig.)

[en] In adults, infectious spondylitis is a rare but sever disease, caused by a bacterial thrombus in tissue of reduced resistance. In conventional radiographs initial findings are a narrowing of the intervertebral space, local osteoporosis and poorly defined erosive borders of the vertebral endplates. These changings can be found at least three to six weeks after the onset of disease. However, in Szintigraphy and MRT pathologic alterations are evident after ten to twelve days. Thus, early diagnosis and treatment becomes possible. In early stages of the disease of localized lysis surrounded by a reactive sclerosis appears in predisposed areas of the vertebral body (subchondral, anterobasal, ventral, central). Apparently, a soft tissue tumor is associated. Sclerosis and reduction of the soft tissue tumor are the first signs of repair processes. After at least 12 weeks, computed tomography can reveal typical sintering of the vertebral body and occasionally the development of a bony sequester. In addition, MRT as well as CT can be helpful in the detection and localization of complications as abscesses or affection of the vertebral canal. The tuberculous spondylitis can sometimes cause difficulties in differential diagnosis. Clinical findings, affection of several vertebral bodies, large soft tissue tumors with appearance of calcification as well as not typical locations are strongly suggestive of tuberculous spondylitis, but these findings are not specific of the disease. Degenerative disorders such as erosive osteochondrosis or changings due ot chronic dialysis (e.g amyloid or crystal arthropathies) may cause even more problems in differential diagnosis. Typical for a blastomatous process is the integrity of the interverebral disc space, which is a rare finding in spondylitis. (orig.)