Personally, I think radiologists have a responsibility to report anything they find. It is not their place to determine suggestibility of the patient or whether they will experience symptoms from it. Their job is solely to report the findings (all of them) and leave the clinical diagnosis to the doctor.

It used to be that patients were not reading their own reports. Now patients can be more proactive when they see things like this and start asking more questions.

Hi en bloc,

You expressed the sentiment that I exactly feel about the judgment call made by this radiologist. I could not express better when you said : "their job is solely to report the findings ( all of them) and leave the clinical diagnosis to the doctor". In my limitation of your language, I somehow feel handicapped in expressing my words. That's why when something important like this comes up, I discussed it with my husband and he helps me in discussing my thoughts and ideas with my

Again, thank you.

I find this conversation fascinating. Just recently my primary doctor made an odd comment in middle of discussion of my SFN, about the pineal cyst (in brain) that I have. I have never been told of this, and have had a CT scan of brain twice over last 3 years with this same doctor. She said this time it's roughly the same size as a few years ago, so nothing to worry about. But isn't it odd that nobody ever bothered to even mention it? I do have headaches, ringing in my ears and had some trigeminal nerve issues, no idea if a cyst like this can cause any of that, I did look it up and usually they are asymptomatic and nothing to worry about. Anyway, just wanted to share my agreement with your stories, and hope you get some good focus and answers from your doctor when he/she returns from vacation.

[QUOTE=SFNgirl;980769]I find this conversation fascinating. Just recently my primary doctor made an odd comment in middle of discussion of my SFN, about the pineal cyst (in brain) that I have. I have never been told of this, and have had a CT scan of brain twice over last 3 years with this same doctor. She said this time it's roughly the same size as a few years ago, so nothing to worry about. But isn't it odd that nobody ever bothered to even mention it? I do have headaches, ringing in my ears and had some trigeminal nerve issues, no idea if a cyst like this can cause any of that, I did look it up and usually they are asymptomatic and nothing to worry about. Anyway, just wanted to share my agreement with your stories, and hope you get some good focus and answers from your doctor when he/she returns from vacation.[/

I am upset about it because of seemingly lack of careful evaluations. It was like an after thought to inform me about the findings. I would have never known had I not asked!!!

It is really important that the patients or his/her family representatives be on top of the treatment.

I hope anyone can help me on this concern about wanting to ask the radiologist to make a revised report to reflect the findings in my anatomical variations. I am requesting for something that should have been part of his original report.

To those who are familiar with the Hippa policy, can I invoke a provision of Hippa on my concern? Please note that radiologist has refused to make a revision of his report giving no reason at all.

Thank you in advance for the inputs.

The only thing I can think of is to take the CD of the scan to another radiologist for a second 'reading' and report. I would let them know ahead of time that you want ALL findings reported...specifically the anatomical variations.

Keep in mind though, your insurance will be billed for the reading and you'll incur any copay. This is probably why he won't change the original report...because he won't get paid to do so. It's all about money in the end.

I am willing to pay for the co-pay. It's just upsetting why this radiologist refused to make an addendum or revised his report -- I am requesting for something that should have been part of the original report in the first place. Also, if ever I change a pulmo in the future, I want to present an official report and not just show a print copy of an email mentioning about the anatomical variations....

Thank you en bloc.