Diagnostic Accuracy and Reliability of Noncontrast Computed Tomography Markers for Acute Hematoma Expansion among Radiologists

Background: Noncontrast Computed Tomography (NCCT) features are promising markers for acute hematoma expansion (HE) in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). It remains unclear whether accurate identification of these markers is also reliable in raters with different levels of experience. Methods: Patients with acute spontaneous ICH admitted at four tertiary centers in Germany and Italy were retrospectively included from January 2017 to June 2020. In total, nine NCCT markers were rated by one radiology resident, one radiology fellow, and one neuroradiology fellow with different levels experience in ICH imaging. Interrater reliabilities of the resident and radiology fellow were evaluated by calculated Cohen’s kappa (κ) statistics in reference to the neuroradiology fellow who was referred as the gold standard. Gold-standard ratings were evaluated by calculated interrater κ statistics. Global interrater reliabilities were evaluated by calculated Fleiss kappa statistics across all three readers. A comparison of receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) was used to evaluate differences in the diagnostic accuracy for predicting acute hematoma expansion (HE) among the raters. Results: Substantial-to-almost-perfect interrater concordance was found for the resident with interrater Cohen’s kappa from 0.70 (95% CI 0.65–0.81) to 0.96 (95% CI 0.94–0.98). The interrater Cohen’s kappa for the radiology fellow was moderate to almost perfect and ranged from 0.58 (95% CI 0.52–0.65) to 94 (95% CI 92–0.97). The intrarater gold-standard Cohen’s kappa was almost perfect and ranged from 0.79 (95% CI 0.78–0.90) to 0.98 (95% CI 0.78–0.90). The global interrater Fleiss kappa ranged from 0.62 (95%CI 0.57–0.66) to 0.93 (95%CI 0.89–0.97). The diagnostic accuracy for the prediction of acute hematoma expansion (HE) was different for the island sign and fluid sign, with p-values < 0.05. Conclusion: The NCCT markers had a substantial-to-almost-perfect interrater agreement among raters with different levels of experience. Differences in the diagnostic accuracy for the prediction of acute HE were found in two out of nine NCCT markers. The study highlights the promising utility of NCCT markers for acute HE prediction.