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Purpose: The need for incorporation of quantitative imaging biomarkers of pancreatic parenchymal and ductal structures has been highlighted in recent proposals for new scoring systems in chronic pancreatitis (CP). To quantify inter- and intra-observer variability in CT-based measurements of ductal- and gland diameters in CP patients., Materials and Methods: Prospectively acquired pancreatic CT examinations from 50 CP patients were reviewed by 12 radiologists and four pancreatologists from 10 institutions. Assessment entailed measuring maximum diameter in the axial plane of four structures: (1) pancreatic head (PDhead), (2) pancreatic body (PDbody), (3) main pancreatic duct in the pancreatic head (MPDhead), and (4) body (MPDbody). Agreement was assessed by the 95% limits of agreement with the mean (LOAM), representing how much a single measurement for a specific subject may plausibly deviate from the mean of all measurements on the specific subject. Bland-Altman limits of agreement (LoA) were generated for intra-observer pairs., Results: The 16 observers completed 6400 caliper placements comprising a first and second measurement session. The widest inter-observer LOAM was seen with PDhead (± 9.1 mm), followed by PDbody (± 5.1 mm), MPDhead (± 3.2 mm), and MPDbody (± 2.6 mm), whereas the mean intra-observer LoA width was ± 7.3, ± 5.1, ± 3.7, and ± 2.4 mm, respectively., Conclusion: Substantial intra- and inter-observer variability was observed in pancreatic two-point measurements. This was especially pronounced for parenchymal and duct diameters of the pancreatic head. These findings challenge the implementation of two-point measurements as the foundation for quantitative imaging scoring systems in CP., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Purpose: To investigate the detectability of renal stones in corticomedullary and nephrographic phases on contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT)., Methods: All consecutive patients between January 2012 and February 2016 undergoing CT of the kidneys according to our department's standard four-phase protocol and having at least one stone in the NC-phase (NCP) were included. Fifty patients with altogether 136 stones were eligible. Two radiologists in consensus evaluated the NCP from each examination and documented the number, location, and size of stones. Three abdominal radiologists blinded to the findings of the NCP reviewed independently the corticomedullary and nephrographic phases on two different occasions. They reported the number and location of stones in each kidney. For the inter-observer agreement the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was estimated. The detection rate of renal stones was calculated for the three radiologists and compared between the two contrast-enhanced phases and the results were analyzed with concern to the size of the stones., Results: The ICC was 0.86. There was no statistically significant difference between corticomedullary and nephrographic phases (p = 0.94). The detection rate for stones measuring 3-5 mm was 82-88% and 98% for stones ≥ 6 mm., Conclusion: The detectability of renal stones ≥ 6 mm on contrast-enhanced CT is extremely high. This means that stones with a higher risk of not passing spontaneously can be safely diagnosed.