Cargando…

Does the Clinical Context Improve the Reliability of Rheumatologists Grading Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis?

OBJECTIVE: Digital ulcers (DUs) are often a primary end point in systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma) clinical trials, although the reliability of rheumatologists grading DUs is poor to moderate at best. DU assessment in recent trials has been based upon visual inspection alone, which potentially m...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hughes, M., Roberts, C., Tracey, A., Dinsdale, G., Murray, A., Herrick, A. L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5006886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26748825
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acr.22833
_version_ 1782451141396660224
author Hughes, M.
Roberts, C.
Tracey, A.
Dinsdale, G.
Murray, A.
Herrick, A. L.
author_facet Hughes, M.
Roberts, C.
Tracey, A.
Dinsdale, G.
Murray, A.
Herrick, A. L.
author_sort Hughes, M.
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Digital ulcers (DUs) are often a primary end point in systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma) clinical trials, although the reliability of rheumatologists grading DUs is poor to moderate at best. DU assessment in recent trials has been based upon visual inspection alone, which potentially misses “real‐world” clinical contextual information. Our aim was to investigate whether this clinical information improves the reliability of rheumatologists grading DUs. A secondary aim was to assess agreement between patients and rheumatologists. METHODS: Eighty images of a range of digital lesions were collected from patients with SSc with the clinical context: pain (severity and temporal relationship), lesion duration, and discharge (patient reported and clinician observed). Raters received all images either with or without the clinical context, and graded these images (using a custom‐built interface) on an ordinal scale of severity: no ulcer, inactive ulcer, or active ulcer. Patients also graded their lesion(s) on the same scale. RESULTS: Fifty‐one rheumatologists from 15 countries completed the study (26 without and 25 with context): 4,590 (including 510 repeated) image gradings were obtained. Context did not significantly increase (without and with context) either intra‐ (0.64, 0.71) or interrater (0.32, 0.36) reliability. Pain (visual analog scale and temporal relationship) and discharge (patient reported and clinician observed) were associated with increased lesion severity, and duration with reduced severity. Agreement between individual patients and rheumatologists was poor without and with context (0.19, 0.28). CONCLUSION: The overall intra‐ and interrater reliability of DU grading did not significantly improve with the clinical context. Agreement between patients and rheumatologists was poor.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5006886
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-50068862016-09-16 Does the Clinical Context Improve the Reliability of Rheumatologists Grading Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis? Hughes, M. Roberts, C. Tracey, A. Dinsdale, G. Murray, A. Herrick, A. L. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) Systemic Sclerosis OBJECTIVE: Digital ulcers (DUs) are often a primary end point in systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma) clinical trials, although the reliability of rheumatologists grading DUs is poor to moderate at best. DU assessment in recent trials has been based upon visual inspection alone, which potentially misses “real‐world” clinical contextual information. Our aim was to investigate whether this clinical information improves the reliability of rheumatologists grading DUs. A secondary aim was to assess agreement between patients and rheumatologists. METHODS: Eighty images of a range of digital lesions were collected from patients with SSc with the clinical context: pain (severity and temporal relationship), lesion duration, and discharge (patient reported and clinician observed). Raters received all images either with or without the clinical context, and graded these images (using a custom‐built interface) on an ordinal scale of severity: no ulcer, inactive ulcer, or active ulcer. Patients also graded their lesion(s) on the same scale. RESULTS: Fifty‐one rheumatologists from 15 countries completed the study (26 without and 25 with context): 4,590 (including 510 repeated) image gradings were obtained. Context did not significantly increase (without and with context) either intra‐ (0.64, 0.71) or interrater (0.32, 0.36) reliability. Pain (visual analog scale and temporal relationship) and discharge (patient reported and clinician observed) were associated with increased lesion severity, and duration with reduced severity. Agreement between individual patients and rheumatologists was poor without and with context (0.19, 0.28). CONCLUSION: The overall intra‐ and interrater reliability of DU grading did not significantly improve with the clinical context. Agreement between patients and rheumatologists was poor. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016-07-28 2016-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5006886/ /pubmed/26748825 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acr.22833 Text en © 2016 The Authors. Arthritis Care & Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Systemic Sclerosis
Hughes, M.
Roberts, C.
Tracey, A.
Dinsdale, G.
Murray, A.
Herrick, A. L.
Does the Clinical Context Improve the Reliability of Rheumatologists Grading Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis?
title Does the Clinical Context Improve the Reliability of Rheumatologists Grading Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis?
title_full Does the Clinical Context Improve the Reliability of Rheumatologists Grading Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis?
title_fullStr Does the Clinical Context Improve the Reliability of Rheumatologists Grading Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis?
title_full_unstemmed Does the Clinical Context Improve the Reliability of Rheumatologists Grading Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis?
title_short Does the Clinical Context Improve the Reliability of Rheumatologists Grading Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis?
title_sort does the clinical context improve the reliability of rheumatologists grading digital ulcers in systemic sclerosis?
topic Systemic Sclerosis
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5006886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26748825
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acr.22833
work_keys_str_mv AT hughesm doestheclinicalcontextimprovethereliabilityofrheumatologistsgradingdigitalulcersinsystemicsclerosis
AT robertsc doestheclinicalcontextimprovethereliabilityofrheumatologistsgradingdigitalulcersinsystemicsclerosis
AT traceya doestheclinicalcontextimprovethereliabilityofrheumatologistsgradingdigitalulcersinsystemicsclerosis
AT dinsdaleg doestheclinicalcontextimprovethereliabilityofrheumatologistsgradingdigitalulcersinsystemicsclerosis
AT murraya doestheclinicalcontextimprovethereliabilityofrheumatologistsgradingdigitalulcersinsystemicsclerosis
AT herrickal doestheclinicalcontextimprovethereliabilityofrheumatologistsgradingdigitalulcersinsystemicsclerosis