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M.Tech. (Radiography (Diagnostic)) In order to meet the needs of the country South African radiographers need to become multi skilled radiographers. Empowering diagnostic radiographers with pattern recognition skills to enable them to comment on images could address the problem in many South African departments where a shortage of radiologists’ results in delayed reports or no reports to referring doctors. The research assessed the ability of qualified diagnostic radiographers in two Gauteng Government Hospital’s to apply pattern recognition and provide a comment on a radiograph after training in musculoskeletal pattern recognition. The study employed a pre- and post-test model with an intervention which comprised training of radiographers in musculoskeletal pattern recognition. The post- test results showed a significant improvement in the accuracy of identifying abnormal images and the comments provided were more complete than before training. Thus the intervention was successful in improving the ability of the radiographers to recognize normal and abnormal images, however, the training would need to be more extensive for an accurate comment to be provided on musculoskeletal images.

Objective: To determine whether patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) who do not have historical or clinical evidence of stroke but who do have computed tomographic or magnetic resonance imaging evidence of noncortical lesions smaller than 2 cm or periventricular "caps" differ from other patients with AD. Methods: The computed tomographic or magnetic resonance imaging scans of 158 patients meeting criteria of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke—Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association for probable AD were reviewed by one neuroradiologist. Two measures of disease severity—the Modified Mini-Mental State examination and the Blessed Dementia Rating Scale (Part I)—were subjected to two-way analysis of variance with scan type (computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging) and lesion number as between-group factors and age and disease duration as covariates. Results: No relationship was seen between lesion number or periventricular caps and disease severity. Conclusion: In this cross-sectional analysis using these clinical measures, patients with AD who have well-defined radiographic abnormalities cannot be differentiated from patients with AD who do not have them.