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Spondyloarthritis-related and degenerative MRI changes in the axial skeleton--an inter- and intra-observer agreement study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The Back Pain Cohort of Southern Denmark (BaPa Cohort) was initiated with the aim of evaluating the clinical relevance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis of early spondyloarthritis (SpA). In order to facilitate the collection of MRI data for this study, an electronic evaluation form was developed including both SpA-related and degenerative axial changes. The objective of the current study was to assess the intra- and inter-observer agreement of the MRI changes assessed. METHODS: Three radiologists evaluated 48 MRI scans of the whole spine and the sacroiliac joints from a subsample of the BaPa Cohort, consisting of patients with non-specific low back pain and patients with different stages of SpA features. The spine was evaluated for SpA-related and degenerative MRI changes and the SIJ for SpA-related changes. Inter- and intra-observer agreements were calculated with kappa statistics. In the interpretation of the kappa coefficient, the standards for strength of agreement reported by Landis and Koch were followed. RESULTS: A total of 48 patients, 40% men and mean age of 31 years (range 18-40 years), were evaluated once by all three readers and re-evaluated by two of the readers after 4-12 weeks. For MRI changes in the spine, substantial to almost perfect observer agreement was found for the location and the size of vertebral signal changes and for disc degeneration and disc contour. For the sacroiliac joints, substantial or almost perfect observer agreement was found for the grading of bone marrow oedema and fatty marrow deposition, the depth of bone marrow oedema and for subchondral sclerosis. Global assessment of the SpA diagnosis had substantial to almost perfect observer agreements. CONCLUSION: The acceptable agreement for key MRI changes in the spine and sacroiliac joints makes it possible to use these MRI changes in the BaPa Cohort study and other studies investigating MRI changes in patients with non-specific low back pain and suspected SpA.

SUBMITTER: Arnbak B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3848902 | biostudies-other | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Spondyloarthritis-related and degenerative MRI changes in the axial skeleton--an inter- and intra-observer agreement study.

Arnbak Bodil B Jensen Tue Secher TS Manniche Claus C Zejden Anna A Egund Niels N Jurik Anne Grethe AG

BMC musculoskeletal disorders 20130923

<h4>Background</h4>The Back Pain Cohort of Southern Denmark (BaPa Cohort) was initiated with the aim of evaluating the clinical relevance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis of early spondyloarthritis (SpA). In order to facilitate the collection of MRI data for this study, an electronic evaluation form was developed including both SpA-related and degenerative axial changes. The objective of the current study was to assess the intra- and inter-observer agreement of the MRI change ...[more]

PMID: 24060355

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Project description:BackgroundRecent developments in diagnostic techniques for malaria, particularly DNA probes and sero-immunology, have raised questions as to how these techniques might be used to facilitate malaria diagnosis at the most peripheral levels of the primary health care system. At present, malaria diagnosis is based on the standard microscopic examination of blood films in most field epidemiologic studies and is likely to remain so in the immediate future in Africa. The objective of this study was to assess inter-observer agreement for the examination of Giemsa-stained slides for Plasmodium falciparum parasites.MethodsChildren aged 0 to 10 years were enrolled yearly in Bancoumana village (West Africa), mainly during the transmission season (June to October). The blood smears obtained from the persistently negative children in June 1996, August 1996, October 1996 and March 1997 were systematically re-examined. A stratified random sample (10%) proportional to the following parasite density classes 1-100, 101-5000, and 5001 and over was taken from the slides collected. The kappa statistics and the intra-class correlation were used as measures of agreement the first and the second slide examinations.ResultsThe weighted kappa statistic, widely used as a chance-corrected measure for nominal agreement, showed excellent inter-observer agreement (?(w)=0.7926; 95% CI [0.7588, 0.8263]; p=0.01). The intra-class correlation co-efficient had the same value of 0.7926 confirming the appropriateness of the weighted kappa statistic. Inter-observer agreement for slides read as negative by one observer, or as containing more than 100 parasites per ?l, was excellent: 97% (493/506) and 92% (145/158), respectively. In contrast, the inter-observer agreement for slides read by one observer as containing 1-100 parasites/?l was poor, 36% (96/268).ConclusionsIn field conditions in Mali, there was a high reproducibility for slides reported as negative or as having more than 100 parasites per ?l. However, smears with readings of 1-100 parasites per ?l were less reproducible and should be re-examined carefully.

Dataset Information

Spondyloarthritis-related and degenerative MRI changes in the axial skeleton--an inter- and intra-observer agreement study.

Publications

Spondyloarthritis-related and degenerative MRI changes in the axial skeleton--an inter- and intra-observer agreement study.

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