Style guidelines for radiology reporting: a manner of speaking.

he radiology report is often the primary means of communication between the radiologist and the referring physician and is a formal medicolegal document. A good radiology report allows the referring physician to generate a mental picture of relevant abnormalities and suggests a diagnosis or next appropriate management step. A good report is not only accurate in content, but it is also concise, clear, and pertinent in style. Radiology training programs place appropriate emphasis on content, but style often receives little attention [2]. In our institution, we have developed style guidelines for radiology reporting to increase concordance in terminology between reports and to improve communication of radiologic findings to our referring physicians. We present these guidelines to increase awareness of reporting style issues but do not suggest that these are the correct or only approaches. The guidelines are arranged under the headings of brevity, clarity, and pertinence.