BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Reproducibility in identifying the fibrous cap (FC) of carotid artery plaques by noncontrast-enhanced MRI has been shown to be poor. The objective of this study was to assess the reproducibility of multisequence MRI, including contrast-enhanced images, in assessing FC status. METHODS Forty-five symptomatic patients with 30% to 69% carotid artery stenosis underwent a mul...

STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional retrospective study designed to assess interobserver agreement. PURPOSE To investigate if interobserver agreement using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the evaluation of lumbar spinal canal stenosis and root compression can be improved upon combination with magnetic resonance myelography (MRM). OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE The interpretation of lumbar spinal MRI, ...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to quantify inter- and intra-observer agreement on classification of the intrapartum cardiotocogram (CTG) and decision to intervene following STAN guidelines. DESIGN A prospective, observational study. SETTING Obstetrics Department of a tertiary referral hospital. POPULATION STAN recordings of 73 women after 36 weeks of gestation with a high-risk ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) is widely used to assess global outcome after stroke. The aim of the study was to examine rater variability in assessing functional outcomes using the conventional mRS, and to investigate whether use of a structured interview (mRS-SI) reduced this variability. METHODS Inter-rater agreement was studied among raters from 3 stroke centers. F...

The card sort is a key scale development tool that is frequently used in IS survey instrument development. Cohen's Kappa is a recommended measure of inter-rater agreement in this process, however one of its underlying statistical assumptions is violated when it is used in open card sorts. To address this issue, Matrix Kappa is proposed as a complement to other card sort analysis techniques, ref...

OBJECTIVES To be useful in development of clinical decision rules, clinical variables must demonstrate acceptable agreement when assessed by different observers. The objective was to determine the interobserver agreement in the assessment of historical and physical examination findings of children undergoing emergency department (ED) evaluation for blunt head trauma. METHODS This was a prospe...

In conjunction with a pooled analysis of risk factors for advanced adenomas [adenomas with severe dysplasia, carcinoma in situ (CIS), and intramucosal carcinoma], we undertook a reliability study on the pathological diagnosis of advanced adenomas. We assessed intraobserver agreement (using Kappa (kappa) as the measure of agreement) across two time periods 10 years apart with a single pathologis...

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS Endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) plays an important role in the staging of Barrett's esophagus (BE) and the evaluation of high grade dysplasia (HGD). The study aim is to assess the interobserver agreement among gastroenterologists expert in BE endotherapy, gastroenterologists without specified expertise in BE endotherapy, and gastroenterology trainees in recommending...

PURPOSE To describe the system for grading age-related macular degeneration from fundus photographs in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study. This is a prospective multicenter cohort study of the course of age-related macular degeneration and a placebo-controlled clinical trial of the effect of high-dose vitamin and mineral supplements on development of advanced age-related macular degeneration. ...