A National Chinese Survey on Ultrasound Feature Interpretation and Risk Assessment of Breast Masses Under ACR BI-RADS

Abstract

Purpose

Through this nationwide survey on ACR BI-RADS including ultrasound images of 10 selected breast lesions, we aimed to learn about consistency in feature interpretation and assessment categories and to identify factors that might contribute to inconsistencies, thereby promoting the application of BI-RADS in China.

Materials and Methods

The survey was delivered through a self-developed website about blinded image interpretation and was released to the public through online platforms and social media. A total of 10 representative lesions were selected by an experienced radiologist to gather information about the general practice of BI-RADS lexicons and categories. The Kappa statistic, the chi-squared test, and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis.

Results

Nine hundred ultrasound workers completed the questionnaire, coming from all provinces and major cities in China. They had different positions, grades of work organization, and seniority. The interrater agreement of BI-RADS features was fair to substantial (kappa value: 0.37–0.66). For BI-RADS categories, the highest agreement was observed in the typical benign group (average constituent rate = 74.78%), and generally lower agreement was observed in the typical malignant (average constituent rate = 36.03%) and suspicious groups (average constituent rate = 39.02%).

Conclusion

We found inconsistencies in BI-RADS applications, providing direction for image feature research using big data. Therefore, we call for more efforts to improve the consistency of BI-RADS application and provide an evidence-based basis for identifying benign and malignant lesions by sonographic features.

Keywords:

• interrater agreement
• BI-RADS lexicons
• breast ultrasound
• national survey

Acknowledgments

Supported by Achievement Conversion and Guidance Project of Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau (No.2017-CY02-00027-GX).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.