Skip to main content
 
Notice: Users may be experiencing issues with displaying some pages on stanfordhealthcare.org. We are working closely with our technical teams to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.
 

See our updated masking policy »

Stanford Health Care

Bosniak Classification of Cystic Renal Masses Version 2019: Comparison of Categorization using CT and MRI. AJR. American journal of roentgenology Tse, J. R., Shen, J. n., Shen, L. n., Yoon, L. n., Kamaya, A. n. 2020

Abstract

Please see the Author Video associated with this article. Background: Bosniak Classification, version 2019 recently proposed refinements for cystic renal mass characterization and now formally incorporates MRI, which may improve concordance with CT. Purpose: To compare concordance of CT and MRI in evaluation of cystic renal masses using Bosniak Classification, version 2019. Materials and Methods: In this IRB-approved and HIPAA compliant study, three abdominal radiologists (R1-R3) retrospectively reviewed 68 consecutive cystic renal masses from 45 patients assessed with both CT and MR renal mass protocols within a year between 2005-2019. CT and MRI were reviewed independently and in separate sessions, using both the original and version 2019 Bosniak Classification systems. Results: Using Bosniak Classification, version 2019, cystic renal masses were classified into 12 category I, 19 category II, 13 category IIF, 4 category III, and 20 category IV by CT and 8 category I, 15 category II, 23 category IIF, 9 category III, and 13 category IV by MRI. Among individual features, MRI depicted more septa (p<0.001, p=0.046, p=0.005 for R1-R3; McNemar's test) for all radiologists, though both CT and MRI showed a similar number of protrusions (p=0.823, 1.0, 0.302) and maximal septa/wall thickness (p=1.0, 1.0, 0.145). Of discordant cases with version 2019, MRI led to the higher category in 12 masses. Reason for upgrade was most commonly due to protrusions identified only on MRI (n=4), increased number of septa (n=3), and a new category of heterogeneously T1-hyperintense (n=3). Neither modality was more likely to lead to a category change for both version 2019 (p=0.502; McNemar's test) and the original Bosniak classification system (p=0.823). Overall inter-rater agreement was substantial for both CT (?=0.745) and MRI (?=0.655) using version 2019 and was slightly higher than that of the original system (CT ?=0.707; MRI ?=0.623). Conclusion: CT and MRI were concordant in the majority of cases using Bosniak Classification, version 2019 and category changes by modality were not statistically significant. Inter-rater agreements were substantial for both CT and MRI. Clinical Impact: Bosniak Classification, version 2019 applied to cystic renal masses has substantial inter-rater agreement and does not lead to systematic category upgrades with either CT or MRI.

View details for DOI 10.2214/AJR.20.23656

View details for PubMedID 32755181