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ABSTRACT: Objectives
To compare the accuracy of trained level 1 diabetic retinopathy (DR) graders (nurses, endocrinologists and one general practitioner), level 2 graders (midlevel ophthalmologists) and level 3 graders (senior ophthalmologists) in Vietnam against a reference standard from the UK and assess the impact of supplementary targeted grader training.Design
Diagnostic test accuracy study.Setting
Secondary care hospitals in Southern Vietnam.Participants
DR training was delivered to Vietnamese graders in February 2018 by National Health Service (NHS) UK graders. Two-field retinal images (412 patient images) were graded by 14 trained graders in Vietnam between August and October 2018 and then regraded retrospectively by an NHS-certified reference standard UK optometrist (phase I). Further DR training based on phase I results was delivered to graders in November 2019. After training, a randomised subset of images from January to October 2020 (115 patient images) was graded by six of the original cohort (phase II). The reference grader regraded all images from phase I and II retrospectively in masked fashion.Primary and secondary outcome measures
Sensitivity was calculated at the two different time points, and χ2 was used to test significance.Results
In phase I, the sensitivity for detecting any DR for all grader groups in Vietnam was low (41.8-42.2%) and improved in phase II after additional training was delivered (51.3-87.2%). The greatest improvement was seen among level 1 graders (p<0.001), and the lowest improvement was observed among level 3 graders (p=0.326). There was a statistically significant improvement in sensitivity for detecting referable DR and referable diabetic macular oedema between all grader levels. The post-training values ranged from 40.0 to 61.5% (including ungradable images) and 55.6%-90.0% (excluding ungradable images).Conclusions
This study demonstrates that targeted training interventions can improve accuracy of DR grading. These findings have important implications for improving service delivery in DR screening programmes in low-resource settings.
SUBMITTER: Curran K
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9472142 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Curran Katie K Congdon Nathan N Hoang Tung Thanh TT Lohfeld Lynne L Nguyen Van Thu VT Nguyen Hue Thi HT Nguyen Quan Nhu QN Dardis Catherine C Virgili Gianni G Piyasena Prabhath P Tran Huong H Salongcay Recivall Pascual RP Tung Mai Quoc MQ Peto Tunde T
BMJ open 20220909 9
<h4>Objectives</h4>To compare the accuracy of trained level 1 diabetic retinopathy (DR) graders (nurses, endocrinologists and one general practitioner), level 2 graders (midlevel ophthalmologists) and level 3 graders (senior ophthalmologists) in Vietnam against a reference standard from the UK and assess the impact of supplementary targeted grader training.<h4>Design</h4>Diagnostic test accuracy study.<h4>Setting</h4>Secondary care hospitals in Southern Vietnam.<h4>Participants</h4>DR training w ...[more]