Introduction
The authors of this article are Lunsjo, Tadros, Hauggaard, Blomgren, Kopke and Abu-Zidan. They wanted to evaluate how useful the plain AP radiograph was in the detection of injuries in the pelvis (Lunsjo et al., 2007). They used CT as the gold standard.
Summary
The authors of this paper were worried about the usefulness of the plain AP radiograph in detecting fractures in the pelvis. The fractures to be examined were specifically those of the iliac wing and os sacrum. For the study, 73 patients were examined. Of the patients, 59 were males and 14 were females. Their ages ranged between 3 and 61. Two identified senior radiologists were to examine the radiographs. They later received the CT scans separately.
For the plain AP radiograph to be said to be useful, it must reflect a certain figure referred to as the usefulness index. This number is usually 0.35 or more. The radiographs were used to detect the fractures of the iliac wing and os sacrum. However, the usefulness index was 0.25 and 0.01. This meant that the AP radiograph was not useful in such examinations.
Strength and weakness
The strength of this article is that the authors were able to stay narrowly focused on the topic. The use of standard measurements for the useful index also shows that they were not biased in their results. One weakness of the article is that it is not supported by much literature.
Conclusion
Despite the usefulness of the acute anterioposterior (AP) radiography in the detection of other fractures, the authors of this article have proved through research that it may not be helpful in determining the presence or absence of fractures of the iliac wing or os sacrum.
References
Lunsjo, K., Tadros, A., Hauggaard, A., Blomgren, R., Kopke, & Abu-Zidan, F. (2007). Acute plain anterioposterior radiograph of the pelvis is not useful in detecting fractures of iliac wing and os sacrum: A prospective study of 73 patients using CT as gold standard. Australian Radiology, 51, 147-149.