Abstract
Recently a new cystic fibrosis chest radiograph scoring system was introduced (J Pediatrics 1993; 91: 488-495), consisting of a weighted assessment of 24 different items for each chest X-ray. The authors stated that this scoring system had a good agreement between observers, and might be useful to assess the severity of lung involvement in young CF-patients. We wanted to confirm between-observer agreement for this complicated scoring system. At the Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, and the Juliana-Lukas Hospital, Apeldoorn, two experienced independent radiologists were asked to score 70 chest radiographs of 10 cystic fibrosis patients under the age of 13 years, in random order and blinded.
Results: The agreement, as reflected by kappa coefficients of concordance, ranged between −0.04 and 1.00, but was marginal for most of the 24 items. The best agreement was reached for uncommon parameters, such as atelectasis. The worst agreement was found for peribronchial thickening, nodular/branching opacities and bronchiectasis.
We conclude that the reproducibility between highly experienced radiologists of this new scoring system was disappointing. This could be overcome by applying more quantitative and strict criteria.
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Oosterkamp, R., Robben, S., Bröker, F. et al. 293 BETWEEN-OBSERVER VARIATION OF A NEW SCORING SYSTEM FOR CF CHEST RADIOGRAPHS. Pediatr Res 36, 51 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199407000-00293
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199407000-00293
