Notice: Users may be experiencing issues with displaying some pages on stanfordhealthcare.org. We are working closely with our technical teams to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.
 

Learn about the flu shot, COVID-19 vaccine, and our masking policy »

Stanford Health Care

Prospective assessment of an atlas-based intervention combined with real-time software feedback in contouring lymph node levels and organs-at-risk in the head and neck: Quantitative assessment of conformance to expert delineation. Practical radiation oncology Awan, M., Kalpathy-Cramer, J., Gunn, G. B., Beadle, B. M., Garden, A. S., Phan, J., Holliday, E., Jones, W. E., Maani, E., Patel, A., Choi, J., Clyburn, V., Tantiwongkosi, B., Rosenthal, D. I., Fuller, C. D. 2013; 3 (3): 186-193

Abstract

A number of studies have previously assessed the role of teaching interventions to improve organ-at-risk (OAR) delineation. We present a preliminary study demonstrating the benefit of a combined atlas and real time software-based feedback intervention to aid in contouring of OARs in the head and neck.The study consisted of a baseline evaluation, a real-time feedback intervention, atlas presentation, and a follow-up evaluation. At baseline evaluation, 8 resident observers contoured 26 OARs on a computed tomography scan without intervention or aid. They then received feedback comparing their contours both statistically and graphically to a set of atlas-based expert contours. Additionally, they received access to an atlas to contour these structures. The resident observers were then asked to contour the same 26 OARs on a separate computed tomography scan with atlas access. In addition, 6 experts (5 radiation oncologists specializing in the head and neck, and 1 neuroradiologist) contoured the 26 OARs on both scans. A simultaneous truth and performance level estimation (STAPLE) composite of the expert contours was used as a gold-standard set for analysis of OAR contouring.Of the 8 resident observers who initially participated in the study, 7 completed both phases of the study. Dice similarity coefficients were calculated for each user-drawn structure relative to the expert STAPLE composite for each structure. Mean dice similarity coefficients across all structures increased between phase 1 and phase 2 for each resident observer, demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in overall OAR-contouring ability (P < .01). Additionally, intervention improved contouring in 16/26 delineated organs-at-risk across resident observers at a statistically significant level (P = .05) including all otic structures and suprahyoid lymph node levels of the head and neck.Our data suggest that a combined atlas and real-time feedback-based educational intervention detectably improves contouring of OARs in the head and neck.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.prro.2012.11.002

View details for PubMedID 24674363