OBJECTIVE: To provide reference ranges of the fetal gall bladder in the Korean population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fetal gall bladder development was evaluated in well-dated, non-anomalous fetuses in the Korean population between February and April 2003 and the visualization rate and reference values were determined from the obtained data. RESULTS: The visualization rate of the fetal gall bladder increased as gestation advanced to a plateau above 90%, which was maintained between 16 and 34 weeks. The measured parameters from the fetal gall bladder had a significant positive relationship with gestational age (p = 0.000 for all cases), and the correlation of length and area with the gestational age (r = 0.741 and r = 0.690, respectively) was better than the correlation of width, height, and volume with gestational age. The repeatability coefficients and coefficients of variation between the two operators were 5.56 mm and 12.9% for the length and 344.11 mm(2) and 33.52% for the area. The median length of the fetal gall bladder in the Korean population was not significantly different from the mean length of gall bladders in the Caucasian and African-American populations (p = 0.915). CONCLUSION: We have provided reference values for the fetal gall bladder throughout the gestation period in the Korean population.
Female ; Gallbladder/*embryology/ultrasonography ; Gestational Age ; Humans ; Korea ; Pregnancy ; Reference Values ; Statistics, Nonparametric ; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color ; *Ultrasonography, Prenatal

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the degree of inter- and intraobserver agreement when characterizing breast abnormalities using the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS)-ultrasound (US) lexicon, as defined by the American College of Radiology (ACR). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred ninety three female patients with 314 lesions underwent US-guided biopsies at one facility during a two-year period. Static sonographic images of each breast lesion were acquired and reviewed by four radiologists with expertise in breast imaging. Each radiologist independently evaluated all cases and described the mass according to BI-RADS-US. To assess intraobserver variability, one of the four radiologists reassessed all of the cases one month after the initial evaluation. Inter- and intraobserver variabilities were determined using Cohen's kappa (k) statistics. RESULTS: The greatest degree of reliability for a descriptor was found for mass orientation (k = 0.61) and the least concordance of fair was found for the mass margin (k = 0.32) and echo pattern (k = 0.36). Others descriptive terms: shape, lesion boundary and posterior features (k = 0.42, k = 0.55 and k = 0.53, respectively) and the final assessment (k = 0.51) demonstrated only moderate levels of agreement. A substantial degree of intraobserver agreement was found when classifying all morphologic features: shape, orientation, margin, lesion boundary, echo pattern and posterior feature (k = 0.73, k = 0.68, k = 0.64, 0.68, k = 0.65 and k = 0.64, respectively) and rendering final assessments (k = 0.65). CONCLUSION: Although BI-RADS-US was created to achieve a consensus among radiologists when describing breast abnormalities, our study shows substantial intraobserver agreement but only moderate interobserver agreement in the mass description and final assessment of breast abnormalities according to its use. A better agreement will ultimately require specialized education, as well as self-auditing practice tests.
Adenocarcinoma/classification/*diagnosis ; Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous/classification/*diagnosis ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Biopsy ; Breast Neoplasms/classification/*diagnosis ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/classification/*diagnosis ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating/classification/*diagnosis ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Observer Variation ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Radiology ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Societies, Medical ; Terminology as Topic ; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color/statistics & numerical data ; Ultrasonography, Mammary/*statistics & numerical data