Inter-observer variability of manual contour delineation of structures in CT

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Abstract

Purpose: To quantify the inter-observer variability of manual delineation of lesions and organ contours in CT to establish a reference standard for volumetric measurements for clinical decision making and for the evaluation of automatic segmentation algorithms. Materials and methods: Eleven radiologists manually delineated 3193 contours of liver tumours (896), lung tumours (1085), kidney contours (434) and brain hematomas (497) on 490 slices of clinical CT scans. A comparative analysis of the delineations was then performed to quantify the inter-observer delineation variability with standard volume metrics and with new group-wise metrics for delineations produced by groups of observers. Results: The mean volume overlap variability values and ranges (in %) between the delineations of two observers were: liver tumours 17.8 [-5.8,+7.2]%, lung tumours 20.8 [-8.8,+10.2]%, kidney contours 8.8 [-0.8,+1.2]% and brain hematomas 18 [-6.0,+6.0] %. For any two randomly selected observers, the mean delineation volume overlap variability was 5–57%. The mean variability captured by groups of two, three and five observers was 37%, 53% and 72%; eight observers accounted for 75–94% of the total variability. For all cases, 38.5% of the delineation non-agreement was due to parts of the delineation of a single observer disagreeing with the others. No statistical difference was found for the delineation variability between the observers based on their expertise. Conclusion: The variability in manual delineations for different structures and observers is large and spans a wide range across a variety of structures and pathologies. Two and even three observers may not be sufficient to establish the full range of inter-observer variability. Key Points: • This study quantifies the inter-observer variability of manual delineation of lesions and organ contours in CT. • The variability of manual delineations between two observers can be significant. Two and even three observers capture only a fraction of the full range of inter-observer variability observed in common practice. • Inter-observer manual delineation variability is necessary to establish a reference standard for radiologist training and evaluation and for the evaluation of automatic segmentation algorithms.

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Joskowicz, L., Cohen, D., Caplan, N., & Sosna, J. (2019). Inter-observer variability of manual contour delineation of structures in CT. European Radiology, 29(3), 1391–1399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5695-5

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